not quite the outcome i wanted, but i guess the republicans have the house so it is not like the first two years of obama when we could not stop anything. but i digress, anyhow i stopped at dicks today just to see if ammo was all gone, and we had another ammo shortage starting, and i was surprised that they were well stocked. but it seems like 308 is still hard to get in surplus and steel cased online. so what do you guys going to think our future is for 4 years, i know i have a little advantage because i cast and reload everything. but i would love to be able to buy surplus and steel ammo in quantity online again someday.
The next four years? You want my opinion really? Okay, here goes, and its pretty ugly for the middle class.
Unemployment will continue to rise (in real terms of "people having a job with a living wage"), and on the 2A front, the UN Arms Treaty will go through some time in the first half of '13, but Harry Reid will sit on it (not enough votes to pass). That won't matter though - until the Senate weighs in it will be treated as a force of law in the U.S. and will excuse a number of EO.
On the bright side, no black choppers, no midnight gun raids, no disappearances of dissidents, no concentration camps, the worst of the scare stuff really won't happen - but there will be a new set of restrictions on firearm related imports is my guess. Maybe just something that jacks up the cost. Kiss the cheap steel case Russian ammo goodbye, as well as AK parts kits. Will there be some kind of restriction on imported standard cap magazines? Maybe, but that's just a guess. Eventually there will probably be restrictions on homebrew guns and reloading ammo (you sir are a manufacturer in the eyes of the UN and the treaty very much IS about manufacturing guns and ammo) - but not for a while is my guess, maybe not 'til the end of the current regime with the usual flurry of outgoing EO's.
There will also (obviously) be a push for a new AWB. Right now everyone in the gun grab movement is waiting for the next massacre before they launch their attack on gunowner's rights. It is pretty much inevitable that there WILL be more massacres, in that the US does a very poor job of "psychopath control". Not surprising, since one of the big determinants of competence classically was whether or not a person could hold a job and take care of themselves. In a nanny state, that sort of determinant is not feasible, as it is the assumption of the ruling class that the ruled can't take care of themselves.
Will there be Supreme Court appointments? If so, kiss Heller and McDonald goodbye. The left regards those as 21st century equivalents of Dredd Scott and would love to reverse them.
So, how do you approach the next four years, if I am right? If you have a job, pray that you will keep it. A lot of us won't. I cancelled all plans for buying a home in my adopted part of the country the night of the election. Since my job in the "Obamacare" economy is now insecure (no chance at a repeal now, and the extra costs will drive a lot of marginal businesses over the edge, or force them to downsize staff) I will have to a. save my $$ for an emergency and b. be ready to move to wherever I CAN find a job. Why all the writing about economics in a gun forum? Because if you're broke it will affect whether or not you can own guns, and even if you already DO own them, it will change what you can do with them. That .338 Lapua status gun with the Leupold scope will be a whole lot less practical than a CZ .22LR with a Nikon that can put food on the table and provide cheap target practice.
On the bright side, if you do lose your job, you can always sell off part of your gun collection to stay afloat. I did that once before and I can and will do it again to support my family (hurts like heck though). I would suggest some serious soul searching as to ways to lighten your load if you do need to pull up stakes to find a new job. Sort of like the appalling "what if I only had 4 guns" things that the gun rags always used to run, only now its for real. My beloved original pre-'41 Colt SAA went by the wayside that way, but it paid the rent for longer than you might believe.
Valeo ("Be Strong"), even in the darkest times of the next 4 years we can survive, and it is our duty to our families to do exactly that. However few will prosper these coming four years.
Hope I'm wrong, but you asked.
Grumpy