Panic Buying in the Twin Cities

Last night I went to a couple of gun stores and was able to view the panic buying first hand. The first gun store I stopped at was the newly reopened GunStop in Minnetonka. There were a couple of customers in there but it wasn’t as crazy as I had expected. GunStop still had some Colt ARs in stock, likely because they are extremely expensive ARs (which is why I don’t have a Colt). There were no AK pattern rifles. Overall it didn’t seem that out of hand there.

The second gun store I stopped at was Cabela’s in Rogers. That place was a zoo. There were likely 10 to 20 people waiting in line for their National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) check and at least another 10 to 20 looking at the guns. All of the modern semi-automatic rifles were sold out as were the standard capacity magazines. Cabela’s was raking in the money.

I was going to stop at Gander Mountain in Maple Grove but they apparently closed sometime between last night and the three or so years it’s been since I worked in the area. Too bad for them, if they were still open they would be making bank right now. In fact they could probably get away with inflating their already overinflated prices.

Seeing all of those people buying guns made me smile. My girlfriend is likely annoyed because she has been planning to pick up an AR for some time now but I take solace in knowing all of those guns are out there. Even if an “assault weapon” ban goes through the market will be flooded with rifles and magazines. Prices will go up, that’s beyond a doubt, but things will be available so long as the state doesn’t try to ban currently owned rifles and magazines (in which case I will simply say come and take them). Seeing record sales has to piss the gun control advocates off.