I don't know who the current buyers are but I do know they don't seem to care a bit about cost. A SCAR-17S is NOT a cheap rifle and that shop had theirs listed for 2895.00 IIRC and it sat in their catalog for at least 18 months without a nibble. Now about the only thing left in their rifle rack is shotguns and most of those are cheap Mossberg's. As for their warehouse, it doesn't have one single long gun left, all their long guns of any description are in the rather empty rack out front.
Now, I expected and was prepared to see the AR's and AK's sold out. You don't have to do much reading to find that semi auto center fire rifles are selling at an unheard of rate. However, I never expected to see the demand shift to lever action and bolt action rifles one the semi's sold out. Also didn't expect to see 308 ammunition darned near disappear. I wish I had anticipated that because I'd like to have 300 rounds more on hand that what I do have. It's quite likely that I'll have to cut back on shooting my 308 for the next year because it may become unavailable anywhere.
Now, there may be a bit of good news in all this furball of demand. I have a distinct hunch that many of the current stampede are not shooters, they bought their rifles just in case there was a ban. It's also possible they purchased them in order to profit from a ban. While it's a bit iffy, I do not think that we are going to see a ban on semi auto center fires or that ridiculous tax stamp suggestion. That goes well beyond the line of "reasonable" as stated in prior Supreme Court rulings. However, I do expect that we will see some additional features test similar to the past ban and we will likely see another 10 round magazine limit. If this is what actually takes place the current AR and AK pattern rifles will likely see a "gain" in market value on the order of 20% over the retail value back in November. Which means that those who bought at 2 times that market value are going to take it in the shorts. Even so, those who bought to profit will likely start selling at some point because they won't want to have that money tied up in a gun they don't use, they want cash even if it's at a loss. The high capacity magazine will naturally carry a premium but IMO that premium will be less than what people are paying right now. Because it won't take long for shooters to learn the same thing they did during the last ban. That is that 10 round magazine limits aren't the end of the world and there are some small advantages to 10 round magazines. It takes less time and effort to load them, they are a bit more reliable, and they are a heck of a lot easier to shoot off a rest with.
Bottomline, at some point I expect that we are going to see a lot of those rifles sold recently dumped back on the market and it's possible we'll see some distinct bargains during the peak of the dump. Personally, my plan is to stand pat and wait to see what actually makes it into Law and then decide what to do. What I expect to see is that in a years time we'll still be able to purchase an AR, the difference will be that it won't offer a flash hider or adjustable stock. However it will still be an AR and odds are that adjustable stocks will still be legal on the aftermarket.
