Now Even the Left Is Stockpiling Guns and Complaining About Price?

Does the gun control crowd now believe firearms are too expensive and should cost less – thus becoming easier to buy? That’s certainly how it seems at first glance when reading a report released earlier this month by Guns Down America titled “The Price Is Wrong.” Gun owners probably thought they’d never live to see the day. Well, don’t get too excited; the report likely doesn’t mean what they want you to think it means.

Meanwhile, despite high prices (and, it would seem, the ideology of the folks in charge over there), California colleges have been stockpiling AR-15s, stun and gas grenades, and sonic weapons – with one school even reportedly owning a submachine gun. The left has long called such things “weapons of war,” so who exactly do these bastions of progressive thought plan on going to war against? And just as concerning, perhaps: Why did it take an investigation to reveal the institutions frequently violated state law in order to keep these stockpiles hidden?

The Prices Are Too Damn High

Like Jimmy McMillan, who famously declared “The rent is too damn high!” when he ran for New York governor, anti-gun organization Guns Down America has decided the next logical step in its crusade against firearms manufacturers is to take the affordability route.

In their report, titled “the Price Is Wrong,” Guns Down America makes three “key Findings” claims:

1. The industry’s profits are inflated by pricing practices that may violate antitrust law. The available economic data indicate that retail pricing is held artificially high, reducing competition to the detriment of consumers.

2. Retailers drive these practices because the law requires that firearm transfers occur in person through federally licensed dealers. Their position as the final point of sale gives them unique leverage to pressure manufacturers to adopt and enforce pricing restraints.

3. These pricing restraints preserve high margins and a unified market structure. Publicly documented conduct shows that retailers have promoted and enforced these restraints to maintain profitability across the industry.

“Approximately 66% of domestically produced handguns are originally sold by retailers that have entered ‘minimum advertised price’ (MAP) or unilateral distributor-retailer price agreements with manufacturers, which raises prices and restricts competition to non-price factors,” the report adds.

The report, initially released in early July, was picked up this week by another anti-gun organization, The Trace. Their story opens with the tale of John Kielbasa, owner of Fernwood Firearms in New York. Back in 2018, John’s stock of SIG Sauer products wasn’t selling. So, he lowered his prices – until SIG found out and threatened to cut off his supply. He complied, of course, but he didn’t drop the issue.

“I took a couple of the guns home and put them in a pot and tried to cook them and eat them but it did not work,” Kielbasa quipped on his store’s Facebook page. “Please contact me on what I am going to do with the stock of Sigs that are not selling?” He emailed the manufacturer, as well, in search of a solution. Sadly, he eventually had to close his store. “Once I purchase the product, it’s my product, and if it ain’t selling what am I going to do with it? It’s a hard business for mom-and-pop stores, so I’m done with it,” he told The Trace.

So does this mean the folks over at The Trace and Guns Down America really want firearms to be easier to buy? Don’t buy that for a second.

The Trace logs shootings around the nation, but that’s not all. Its reporting also broadly supports gun control policies. A recent headline went so far as to suggest reduced SNAP benefits will lead to more shootings. No surprise here – it was established with seed money from Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun control advocacy group in the US.

And what of Guns Down America? “We’re taking our lives back from the gun industry,” the organization’s homepage reads. “We endeavor to make communities safer by pursuing business and economic solutions to gun violence.” Neither group is on the side of gun owners, actually hoping for lower, more equitable prices; they just want another avenue to attack firearms manufacturers.

California Colleges: Educating, Indoctrinating, and Stockpiling Guns

Few places in the nation are less friendly to the Second Amendment than the blue bastion of progressivism known as California. The Golden State has the strictest gun laws in the nation, and several cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, take it even further, ranking with Chicago and New York City as the most restrictive locations in America.

Governor Gavin Newsom and Senator Alex Padilla even advocate for a federal ban on so-called “assault weapons,” better known as semi-automatic sporting rifles. Both are Democrats, of course, as are about 85% of Golden State politicians at the federal level and more than 75% at the state level.

Why then are universities and colleges in the state stockpiling these so-called weapons of war?

A recent investigation by CalMatters revealed that many public institutions in California are keeping “military-grade weapons,” including AR-15s, stun grenades, gas, and even sonic weapons so devastatingly loud they’re often called by the armed forces “the voice of God.” According to state law, these schools can have such weapons, so long as they believe there’s no other way to “uphold civilian safety” and as long as they maintain clear reports to the state and to the general public about those weapons.

But – surprise, surprise – many aren’t complying.

CalMatters tried to compile a list from these annual reports, including use policies, back in 2025. They quickly found, however, that the reports didn’t all include the mandatory data. Colleges frequently left out information like manufacturers’ product descriptions, up-to-date inventories, and exactly how and when these weapons were to be used.

And the reports they could get demonstrate the institutions don’t follow their own guidelines on what they can own, either. San Jose State University and San Francisco State University both own AR-15s, despite Cal State’s policy against it. A spokesperson from the university said the AR-15s were standard issue, which, in her interpretation, exempts them from reporting them.

“The Cal State military equipment policy does not authorize using grenades to deploy teargas or oleoresin capsicum,” explained a report by The Guardian. Yet these grenades have “always been in our armory,” Captain Jermaine Thomas of the San Jose State University Police Department explained. The school has 33 such grenades, not to mention a submachine gun of undisclosed type – which, as you likely guessed, also isn’t authorized by school or state policy. “We will never use them,” Captain Thomas assured The Guardian. Well, how comforting.

Oh, and here’s another bit of “comforting” news, according to a more recent update by California NPR and PBS affiliate KQED:

“But following CalMatter’s inquiries, several campuses – as well as the Cal State system – said they are hereafter committed to following the military equipment transparency law in its entirety. In addition, some are downsizing their inventory.”

You caught us breaking the law, so from here on, we promise to follow it? Uh-huh, sure.

Meanwhile, those dastardly firearms manufacturers who are just out to make a profit no matter the cost are actually standing up for the Second Amendment. Late last month, CMMG, a Missouri-based manufacturer of AR-15 rifles, announced it would no longer sell its products to law enforcement agencies in states that ban AR-15s for civilian use.

“At this time, CMMG would like to renew our statement on sales of products to states that restrict the freedom of its citizens,” the company announced on June 30. “We do not have two classes of citizens in this country; we ALL are subject to the Constitution.” They’ll still sell police departments such weapons, but only if the chiefs and sheriffs make a public and written statement refusing to enforce their state’s unconstitutional gun laws.

As well, Barrett, maker of the famed Barrett .50 Caliber rifle, no longer sells weapons to California law enforcement following the Golden State’s ban.

So the gun-grabbing left still wants to disarm Americans while stockpiling weapons of their own, and the firearms manufacturers may be keeping prices high, but they’re also actively defending the Second Amendment? Whoever could have seen that coming?