So the election is around the corner. Because Im a survivalist, I have to be prepared for possible outcomes that will affect me. So…there’s is a vendor in the midwest right now who just sold a metric buttload of Magpul Glock magazines to some rude survivalist dude in Montana. I asked him how  they were selling. He said they’d sold over 100,000 in the last month. I don’t believe that, but I do believe that by this time next week his remaining inventory of 800 mags will gone.

It has been 12 years, or three Presidential election cycles, since the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban expired. If you had bought one magazine (your choice of flavors..AR, AK, Glock, whatever) every month since then you wold have a gross (thats 12 dozen, or 144) magazines for your favorite boomtoy. But many people didn’t do that. In fact, many people just shrugged their shoulders and did nothing to hedge their bets. Those people are now on the phone to CDNN listening to a recorded voice say “..you are caller number..85..in queue..”.

Assuming that youve been into preparedness/guns since that time, there is no excuse for you to not have your lifetime of magazines. In fact, the sunset of the AW ban was your ‘second chance’…your Jimmy Stewart “Wonderful Life” moment…to relive your magazine/gun buying past. Did you make the most of it?

So why did I buy more mags? A few reasons..first, while I have what I think I’ll need for the rest of my life I am a big fan of overkill. Second, these are mostly for resale at exploitative  prices to whiners who will say “You’re price gouging! That magazine only cost you ten dollars!”. And I will say, “Yes it did, the other $90 is for you expecting me to cover your twelve years of cluelessness.” And, finally, I just like having them. It’s a giver of warm-fuzzies…like food in the freezer, gas in the cans, money in the bank, and Jennifer Lawrence’s panties on my bedpost.

All is not entirely lost….once the election is done, the laws won’t really change until after the inauguration. Thus, you have about a two month window to really kick it into high gear…as millions of other people try to do the same. Perhaps with the new administration they won’t get around to ‘the gun issue’ for a little while, or at all, but You. Dont. Know.

And this is important: Any new ban will not be like the old one. Do you really think they’ll put in a sunset clause? Or an exemption for specific named guns? Do you really think they’ll simply copy the 1994 ban and run it up the flagpole again without changing it to suit their goals? Don’t be silly!

Yup, you’re going to spend a couple hundred dollars on magazines. Here’s something to help you put that in perspective:

Twenty years ago.

Today

You young whippersnappers may not remember it, but there was a time that you would think you’d stumbled onto gold if you found a guy selling a used Glock 33-round happystick for less than $125. Today, you can buy three of them for that price…more if you shop around carefully. I’ve a tall .50 can full of ones (Glock-made) that I paid $20/@ years ago.

And if I’m wrong….if a Republican-controlled Senate and House hamstrings the new President and no new laws are enacted (what are the odds??) then what? Was it a waste of money? Nope. You still have something you want, and can use. Plus, and this is just my personal take on it, another ban will happen. If it doesn’t happen this administration, it’ll happen in another. But…like hurricanes and earthquakes, we may not know when but we know it will happen.

Oh, and not to jinx things, but I will bet that sometime between now and the inauguration, there will be a high-profile mass-shooting to reinforce the whole “we must ban them’ message. I hope I’m wrong, but I dont think I will be.

Suggested reading: Mag Speculating.

My life, broadly speaking, is a swirling cesspool of despair and hopelessness from which no ray of hope can ever escape. BUT…once in a very rare while, Fortuna, perhaps feeling sorry for me, will discreetly put her finger on the scale and tip it in my direction. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens often enough, like the occasional royal flush, to make me stay in the game. Case in point, todays totally unexpected surprise:

Yes, there is a small patch of wear from where the previous owner had an HK carry handle mounted on the gun, but this is an otherwise unfired, genuine, honest-to-Crom, HK-91 in the box, circa 1981.

A longtime friend of mine came by an announced he was thinning out his collection and gave this thing (and it’s bayonet) to me. I’ve had very few pleasant surprises in my life but this was one of them. I know, I know…most of you are still bouncing the word ‘gave’ around in your head. Yes, gave. As in “Here is an astronomically expensive gun that most people would have sex with a Cuisinart in order to possess. Take it, it’s yours. Free of charge.”

For those not in the know, these things were banned from import back in the 80’s. Of course, that immediately raised their value and they now trade somewhere in the range of what a decent used pickup truck costs.

Being a fatalist, I am terrified. If something this good happens to me, there has to be something equally bad out there waiting in the wings to balance the scales.

For those who havent figured it out yet, this posts title refers to the ‘unooficial’ motto of HK.