Panic Buying Bump Fire Stocks is Stupid

Don’t get me wrong. You have the right to pay whatever you want and vendors have the right to charge whatever the traffic will bear. Capitalism is awesome and there is no such thing as price gouging. But it’s beyond foolish to pay inflated prices in anticipation of a ban. There isn’t any likely scenario that plays out where your “investment” pays off.

Let’s say there is a ban. Now you have paid $600 or more to buy a thing that you will have to turn in. But maybe you molon the labe and hide it. Still, you can’t ever use it on the range. What good is it to you to keep this hidden felony?

Perhaps there isn’t an outright ban, but they are added to the NFA registry. Congratulations! Now you get to pay another $200 tax to keep the thing you already own. That is, unless they are considered to be a machine gun, like a DIAS or lightning link. Honestly, they would have a hard time classifying a bump fire stock as any other Title II device. In that case you’re back to the part where you now own something illegal and you have to turn it in or destroy it because the NFA registry was closed for machine guns in 1986 and you can’t register new ones.

Or, and this is probably the most likely scenario, it all fizzles out after the hysteria dies down and there is no ban. Nothing happens and the panic was all for naught, just like the previous panics. Congratulations! Your $600 stock is back to being worth $100.

Now, it is indeed possible that a ban is passed with a grandfather clause as with the AWB. In that case, you win. You get to keep your expensive range toy. Or sell it at an even more inflated price. But it still doesn’t serve any practical purpose for you. And, the way people are talking, it sounds as though if there is a ban, there isn’t likely to be any grandfather clause.

Please don’t take any of this to mean that I’m advocating for any of these outcomes. I’m just pointing out the possible ways this whole thing can turn out. The most likely outcomes are that you pay a lot of money for a thing you can’t keep or you pay a lot of money for something that will soon lose its value.

Unless you are on the other side of this transaction and you have suckers lined up around the block to pay 3-6 times what you paid for your stock. Then you would be a fool not to take their money. The only question is how long to wait for demand and price to increase before the bottom drops out.