Guns are selling like crazy in the US but they have been for months. Everyone knew this was coming down there and they've been buying in anticipation of new gun laws.
There is little doubt that the US will pass some form of Assault Weapons ban and that it may well be more limiting than the last one. That's a while off yet but people are already buying in expectation of that.
The manufacturers have been working overtime to build what they can before that all happens... even still they can't keep up with US demand. We've been telling folks for months that the backlog of AR orders has been slowley getting worse. Some accused me of spreading fear and distorting the facts... whatever.
Right now we are still getting AR's. There are some restrictions on what we can export from the US but that hasn't stopped everything... we're still getting some really nice configurations from RRA and in fact just got another shipment this weekend.
Prices have gone up. This is partly because almost every US manufacturer has raised their prices in the past month or two. Stipped lowers that were selling for as little as $120 and $130 US 12 months ago are now full retail and that's if you can find them. DPMS is now $189.95US and sold out everywhere (we have export permits but no-one has inventory)... Rock River is still $165.00 retail US but quoting 2 to 4 month delivery (we just got another shipment this weekend but these were ordered months ago).
Figure in the currency at nearly 1.30, add shipping, brokerage, permit costs, etc. and our $249.99 price is pretty good... equivalent to under $199 when currency was at PAR.
Rifles have done the same thing... RRA raised the price on ever single rifle in their catalogue... all parts, etc.. Even with that they still can't keep up with orders.
I did a check on Friday of 2 of the largest US Distributors in the US... they have almost nothing in inventory that's AR related. It was amazing to see that... it's the first time I've seen it like that. Expectations in the US are that it will continue.
We're getting stuff but it just takes a long time and we have to be happy with whatever we get. We'll be posting some items on our site this week. I don't expect them to last very long.
Mark
