It Could Happen Here Weekly 242

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Cool Zone Media.

**Robert Evans** (0:03)
Hey everybody, Robert Evans here, and I wanted to let you know, this is a compilation episode. So every episode of the week that just happened is here in one convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to listen to in a long stretch if you want. If you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, there's gonna be nothing new here for you, but you can make your own decisions.
What's pew pew in my pews? This is Robert Evans and It Could Happen Here, a podcast about it happening here as it seems to be more every week. And when things get worse, one thing that a lot of folks start talking about is, should I buy a gun? And obviously this is a fraught question and the only responsible answers to it are very complicated. And so to talk over some very complicated answers, we've got James Stout and we have in the audience with us, the great Carl Casarda. Carl of InRange TV, thank you for coming on to be our resident firearms expert in this podcast where we try not to be deeply irresponsible.

**Carl Casarda** (1:07)
Yeah, thank you for having me on. It's always a pleasure to come back to the show and people always ask for more collabs and here we are, but on a very important topic. And the only question I have is now is, when do you change the name of the podcast to, oh no, it's happening here?

**Robert Evans** (1:21)
We're talking with the marketing people. It done happened here.

**James Stout** (1:26)
Oh shit, it's happening again.

**Robert Evans** (1:27)
It's been happening here. Here it is, here, now, right in this moment.
Be here now, comma, it.

**James Stout** (1:37)
Yeah, we gotta work out which one SEO is best, but we're on it, Carl, don't worry.

**Robert Evans** (1:41)
Okay, great, we're working on it.

**James Stout** (1:43)
So as I think both of you know, but maybe listeners don't, gun sales typically soar before elections as do ammunition purchases.
People are afraid of gun bans, has been traditionally one reason why, and the firearms industry is not afraid of hyping those up to increase sales in election years. And normally prices increase in line with demand. Like if you go back to November 2020 and look at the prices of ammunition and guns compared to now, you'll see how much incredibly higher they were, that was for a number of reasons. But considering inflation, gun prices are pretty low right now.

**Robert Evans** (2:15)
You know, that is kind of a recurrent thing for the most part is that while everything else gets more expensive, television and firearms remain affordable.

**Carl Casarda** (2:27)
Guns have gotten to the point where they're more affordable than they've ever been.

**James Stout** (2:30)
Uh-huh.

**Robert Evans** (2:30)
Yeah, they really are.

**Carl Casarda** (2:32)
AR-15s are, I used to talk about this on in-ring, AR-15s are essentially cordwood. And you can get a fully fled, good to go AR-15 now for like 400 to 500 bucks. You get pistols for 250 bucks. The prices on guns are like through the floor. And it's interesting to note that like, if you are a gun manufacturer or a firearms dealer, even if you don't hype elections, it would be unintelligent of you to not prep for elections because they're so consistently the Christmas of gun sales. So this is an instance in which we didn't see that. It's kind of interesting.

**Robert Evans** (3:03)
I think there's an element, because obviously when we talk, I think to people who are not into guns and talk about how cheap guns have gotten, they're like, well, that's very bad. And there's definitely downsides to that. But an upside of that is it does kind of suggest we are not seeing the degree of panicked hoarding for a civil war that we have seen at previous points when gun prices were not as cratered and ammo prices were a lot higher and ammo availability was a lot lower. Like in some ways, that's kind of an optimistic sign.

**Carl Casarda** (3:33)
Yeah, or the dark side of that is the traditional prepper air quote is so saturated in guns and ammunition that they don't even need another one.

**Robert Evans** (3:40)
Right, well, I think that is where a lot of people are. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

**James Stout** (3:45)
Also, like capacity really increased in 2020 and I think they've been pumping out, like it's interesting to look at like the cost of 9mm and 5:56 ammunition, which if you're not familiar, are like the most commonly used defensive ammunition rounds compared to more niche stuff. Like that hasn't gone down as much if you're trying to get 300 wisdom or something.