On Saturday, after leaving work, I met Scott and another co-worker at Surplus Arms & Ammo in Tacoma. We arrived about 15 minutes before they opened their doors and there was a ling about 15 people long as we parked. In the following 15 minutes another 20 people showed up, wrapping the line around the building.
At the opening of the front doors, an employee stepped out and began an announcement that yes, they had just received about 40 stripped AR lowers. They had two complete rifles and no uppers or completed lowers. They had PMags and they were $29 and $33 for no-window/windows models respectively. They also had about 10K rounds of 5.56 (but I forget the price).
They also made mention that it would be a waste of time for individuals to even enter the store without a valid ID, listed the acceptable forms of ID, and told folks to check their ID.
They questioned you at the door before letting you in, asking what you wanted. If you wanted ammo, you were directed to it and the non-firearms purchase sales register. If you wanted an AR or AR lower, you had to wait for an open counter person to fill out your bill of sale. After you completed your bill of sale, you were put in a line to electronically fill out your 4473. After that, you waited for them to complete the “stupid phone call”, after which they called you up to the firearms purchase sales register.
It was a mad house in there, it being a rather small space. There were easily 45 people in their at the peak. I do not know what their prices were on PMags before this last week, but the price for an AR lower had risen 20%.
Even though I have all the AR’s I need, I bought one lower as sort of a “price of admission” to the show. I didn’t take any pictures of the throng because I’m sure someone would have been upset with me for doing so. So this is all anecdotal.
The truly sad part of this story is that I had been forming up a group of 4-6 co-workers and I was going to bring my AR building tools and we were going to build lowers on some random weekend morning in the future. That was six weeks ago. No I have almost a dozen people wanting to do so, including a husband/wife team, but the lowers and parts kits are scarce. I’m directing them to Surplus Arms & Ammo next week to begin their journey and we’ll all hope for the best.
