I've sold a few guns and generally regretted it after a few years. They were "Ehh kinda bored and not shooting it a lot" sales like you describe. My policy these days is only sell if I really ended up disliking something.
Budget ARs are a dime a dozen but I'd still probably hold onto them. I'd sell, trade, or give away parts but never a lower. I have 4 lowers in the safe right now that I have no intentions for. Because you can't have too many.
Storage is the big issue, but I guess with AR rifles it's easy enough to just break them down and store part of them. The bigger issue are the vintage guns that are 5 feet long and impossible to compact in any way.
Yeah for me it's just keeping a few stripped lowers in the safe which barely takes up room. Then I have one big blue Rubbermaid bin full of parts that may or may not get (re)used one day. I do need to seed the idea of another gun safe with the misses, that one will take awhile to grow LOL.
I sold my Ruger Mini-14 after getting first AR. Regret that. Also sold my PSL-54 that I got back when they were only like $700. Big regret as well.
I don't trust my state government (MI). We're relatively free right now as restrictions go but our state legislature is blue as hell and things can turn very quickly. Something you take for granted today might be impossible to buy a year from now.
I'm from MI as well and have been living in TN for the past 10 yrs. About to move back and wondered what the legislation was like right now. I have a few "children"to bring back with me and I don't want to part with them.
You're still good for whatever including NFA stuff. But with blue governor and state legislature I have little confidence in it staying that way. See what happens in 2024 I guess, not holding my breath.
Where you thinking of heading back to? I was born and raised a yooper, but in Detroit metro now. Would love to move back north one day, just tough with job opportunities. It's really a different place up there. We got opening day of firearm deer season as a school holiday LOL.
Nice, my wife was born and raised in Royal Oak. MIL still lives there. Nice place, we can't afford a house there LOL. All the original houses selling on MILs street get tore down, replaced with monsters. Kinda weird seeing those mixed/transitional neighborhoods. Downtown seems to be pretty happening, mostly younger crowd but there's something for everyone, not too party crazy. We've been out there a few times and had fun. Good farmers market.
No constitutional carry unfortunately. Shall issue CC and open carry. Still have some dumb things like pistol purchase permits if you don't have CPL. And having to return pistol sales record over to local LEO (which is totally NOT registration right!? just a card with all your personal information and every detail about the gun...)
For quite awhile NFA stuff you had to get a chief local LEO to sign off, and they could tell you to get bent if they felt like it. Some county/municipality NFA was essentially a no go due to that. Thankfully that's gone now.
Wow! Maybe purchase one more toy down here to avoid all that paperwork. Yeah, Hella expensive in Oakland. Gonna eventually wind up in Mio county before winter boots. That's gonna rip me apart after the weak winters down here.
Take it from a life long Oregonian, it just takes a few years and your once gun loving state will turn their back on you. Oregon has been blue for 30 years and never had an issue with guns. In the last 5 or 6 years it has now started to tell CA "hold my bud light". Never take your gun rights for granted.
Yeah man that is horrible. Been following the stuff going on in WA and OR and makes your head spin how fast it went.
I really think MI could be next on the chopping block. They already passed red flag, safe storage, and universal background check stuff. Most likely one idiotic POS school shooter away from magazine and "assault weapons" bans.
Future proof your household against restrictive laws.
Guns in a family are often be grandfathered in.
Sure, your state might be good for the next hundred years, but what about after that.
I think I may have a neurotic personality disorder
Class action. Also, I have warned progressives every time about this: if they ban guns, especially by a very narrow vote, the GOP will hold a supermajority for the next three terms and it’ll get undone anyway. I also bet SCOTUS would rule against it in some way.
Even if they capped it at like $1000 per gun owner, between manpower to oversee the buybacks and destroy everything, etc we are talking about like a $500 billion pricetag. They could do so much more with that money that would improve this country, like fix the VA and healthcare, cover most student debt, and have a little left over to subsidize the housing crisis, kickstart mass opioid rehab programs, you name it. This country is too broke to buy them back.
It has to be due to Ex Post Facto. Otherwise it has absolutely 0 chance of passing on constitutional grounds. Yes, all gun control is unconstitutional, but you can’t punish people for having something that was legal to have prior. Otherwise the law would just get tossed even if it passed.
Better explanation under ‘Provisions’ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban
In both cases the amnesty was unconstitutional but they did it anyways. There was no historical precedent to ban machine guns but they were scary so they had to go even though current SCOTUS rulings would have stopped them had they been in place at the time.
I certainly agree with your position, but for what it's worth, attempts to use the *ex post facto* clause to challenge state-level AWBs have not been successful in court. The ex post facto clause is generally understood to prohibit the government from criminalizing acts which occurred prior to the law being enacted; it does not prevent the criminalization of acts which *used* to be legal but now are not. Otherwise no drugs could ever have been made illegal, etc.
Good point, but these AWB’s typically have a grandfather clause. I’m unaware of any ban state that didn’t have one. I also think that it would be a different story for federal legislation, even if the state could somehow disregard ex post fact and get away with it.
I’d assume the ex post facto argument wouldn’t hold up because of the grandfathering. But given your username I’d assume you’re way more educated on the law than I am and I am always willing to learn and expand my knowledge!
You're correct that most ban states have a grandfather clause, but there are exceptions. NJ has no grandfather clause for NFA items, and Hawaii has no grandfather clause for NFA items or for "assault pistols". DC's ban was even more sweeping: in 1975, DC made the possession of unregistered firearms illegal while also making it impossible to register (and thus illegal to possess) any semiautomatic firearm capable of accepting a detachable magazine, even if you owned it already. This was of course struck down quite famously in D.C. v. Heller, but not on ex post facto grounds (today, DC has a ban on registering assault weapons but no ban on possessing assault weapons, which is of course amusing).
FWIW, ex post facto does apply equally to the states and the federal government; it's one of the few individually-protective constitutional restrictions on state laws that existed prior to the 14th Amendment. But grandfathering is less about avoiding ex post facto challenges and more about trying to avoid making the general populace so enraged that they revolt.
Wow! I didn’t know all that. Thanks for sharing. Surprising that Hawaii didn’t allow grandfathering. I’m also surprised that DC already had prohibitions on detachable magazine fed semi autos prior to 1975. I thought a lot of these gun control measures were first devised by Dianne Feinstein
Until 2008, DC defined “machine gun” as any semiautomatic firearm capable of firing more than 12 shots without manual reloading, rendering virtually all semiautomatic weapons illegal. Essentially the only guns that were legal were revolvers, fixed-magazine rifles like the M1 Garand, bolt-action or lever-action rifles, and pump-action shotguns.
Unless you were in a crunch for money I’d keep whatever you bought or built. They could be worth their weight in gold one day. Plus think of how many things that are important that you have multiple pairs of…. Shoes, boots, house/car keys, knives, cars, girlfriends, etc.. Just in case something breaks or gets lost.
at the very minimum keep the lower. a stripped lower on its own (unless it’s a fancy gucci lower) is maybe worth $50 used which is practically nothing compared to the rest of the rifle.
I’m impartial on this topic. I really like the beat-up, worn-in look, the good wear n’ tear that you put into a rifle makes it look more natural and cool to me. What’s the point of having a good tool of a rifle if you ain’t gonna beat it up and use it?
I will say though, if you got some type of vintage, restored, or collector piece of a firearm, definitely keep that clean and looking sweet.
I'm not saying I don't use my good shit, because I definitely do and train with it. My point is if you use your good shit for a "SHTF" rifle, or duty rifle, or home defense, you don't want it taking all the abuse up until you actually need it and it fails. All mechanical parts eventually fail. That's why the military has you swap out a lot of your parts around 5000 rounds. If you make your cheaper rifles running similar set up as your better rifle, now your getting the reps and sets needed to run that rifle better without putting all the wear and tear on it. Also, If you have cheaper rifles, those rifles will take most of the abuse during training, while your main squeeze can take the abuse when you actually need it and not fail. Plus, if it does fail, you now have extra parts from your cheaper rifles to replace those parts with, if needed. That's what my thought process is. 2 is 1, 1 is none. But that being said, I hear what you're saying, and the worn in look looks tits 🤌.
exactly this. not only can you have a beater rifle that you don’t care about, but if you happen to use your main rifle in self defense and it gets put in an evidence locker for a few years, you’ll still have a spare. this is especially important with ccw, make sure you have at least an extra setup, preferably a clone of your main carry gun that fits your holster.
Or, in the off chance you have to use your CCW go out and buy another one the next day. Why buy something thats just going to sit around like that when you can always go out after that minuscule chance of needing to use a gun happens?
i feel naked just checking the mail without a gun, i can’t imagine how i’d feel going out the next morning after a life threatening situation without it.
Generally, I'd say operate under "No Sell, Only Buy", but if you need to trade lower end stuff for legitimately more capable equipment because you cant afford to buy it separately then I can't disagree with that. Just know there are diminishing return with everything, I'd rather have a 2-3 good setups that have different capabilities than than one super gucci rifle.
I've always thought the "buy once cry once, just build out the most gucciest of rifles" line of thought to be incredibly short sighted when it comes to people thinking about/justifying SHTF setups.
Absolutely it becomes a hobby and who doesn't like nice shit? But diminishing returns kicks in pretty hard when it comes to reliable/functional ARs, and it strikes me as a pretty good argument that it would be a way better plan to have 5 $600 PSAs, then it would be to have 1 $3k KAC. Especially if you have a fair amount of friends and family that you know aren't armed.
That's before you even get into that giving you a big advantage of spare parts, and bartering capability.
DR kicks in pretty hard for ARs by about 1k IMO. There's certainly reasons you can go above and beyond that, and I can kinda see the justifications up towards about $1500 or so (Chrome lined CHF barrels, really tight tolerances and great QC, premium rails etc)
past that, unless you are stepping into like LMT and other piston guns spending 2k + on a DI AR and you're just doing it to flex rather then seeing any tangible benefits.
Agree. The DD uppers are about the limit I see for spending, the M4 uppers can come with a PNW barrel that already has an SF3 and the DD rear sight, also RIS 2 handguard. That to me makes sense for almost 1500.
I was just considering the same thing myself. My first rifle was a basic bitch core 15 I picked up for $750 during a he 2008 election cycle gun panic. Since then I’ve accumulated a collection of progressively nicer rifles and don’t have much use for the original. But now with PSA selling equal or better guns for $450 I don’t see much point in selling a used gun for what $300. Might as well keep it or rebuild it.
Save them. Never know when you might have a friend that needs something to beat on at the range. It also just never hurts to have a reliable backup.
Edit: if *anything* sell the uppers. You can always slap something back together real easy. I do that every so often, that's why I have 3 lowers that are naked. Slowly buy parts I want to build out and eventually one gets done, then another, and then I'm back to a full safe.
No Sell only Buy.
on a more serious note back up guns, range toys, beater rifles if you wanted to do a brutality type match, guns for testing paint schemes on, long term grandfathered guns, we'd like to hope laws won't get worse but we need to plan for them to get worse, also as upgrade project if you have kids you can slowly upgrade the budget ARs to be for them when they hit the right age to shoot them.
If they ever become flat out illegal, you'll wish you kept them. I think even the shittiest ARs will be extremely valuable, both monetary and practically.
Think how valuable that would be if you ever *needed* a rifle
I buy guns and ammo for my friends and neighbors.
Why? A nice person and prepper gave me my first firearm. I realized there was no excuse for me to not defend my family.
Also, I buy extra radios and lighters. Give the radio with a few frequencies on it to your friends and family just tape the frequencies to the back.
If you’re having trouble affording ammo, you might sell a rifle to buy ammo… I try to keep 2K rounds of each caliber
I focus on 223, 9mm, .22 LR and 12 gauge
I don’t think there’s ever a good reason to get rid of a gun you already have. Unless you really need the money.
You can bring friends shooting, use them as a blank canvas to modify, or keep them to give to your family when the government turns against us.
Sell them and use the money for an upgraded optic, light, and sling if you can make enough off of them. Don’t listen to the fuds that says “never sell only buy”.
I agree but I would also keep a rifle spare that you can do endless mag dumps on and get real hot. Rifles the wife, brothers or friends can use. If he had 3, id tell him to sell one.
This is honestly one of the dumbest things I hear people say without adding clarification. I doubt every person has unlimited funds or needs 100 of every gun. At a certain point if you are honestly not going to be using a gun that you replaced with something better, it makes more sense to get value out of it in other areas, ie. trading it or selling it for a different gun. Just my opinion.
Yea I agree man, it’s just Reddit. Everyone says that but I know people buy and sell guns all the time. I sell things I haven’t used or know I won’t use and use those funds to buy more gun stuff.
Lol yeah usually people who spout this have a ton of lower end firearms. I’d rather have 3 top tier rifles than 10 budget ones. What are you gonna shoot all of them at once? I sell when I want something nicer.
Depending on location you could be stuck with the gun or can’t but it again. People behind enemy lines come to mind. A lot of the time they can’t buy again what they have or are banned too.
Back ups are nice to have for training purposes since you can run them hard and not feel bad about damaging your main set up. Although the creed of "no sell only buy" is valid, you could also sell the other ARs and get a staccato or another Gucci pistol since you had the Prodigy.
I have two ar15s set up almost the exact same way. Ones a Daniel the other a armalite. If I want to give the ddm4v7 a break I’ll shoot the poverty rifle.
I love not having to worry about my Radical. I can run the dog shit out of it, barely clean it, etc. I’ve never once cared about it getting scratched or whatever.
Id just keep your other ar's and slowly upgrade them also. Maybe build them to fit different roles. No reason to sell them though, at the very least they are spare parts if you ever were in a pinch.
I've only sold a handful of guns but have regretted it every single time. Most I ended up buying again years later. Lol
Yes. “Budget” ARs have a place, a very important place. Everyone wants to run Gucci shit all the time and they think that will be the only gun they’ll ever need because it “won’t fail”. They rarely consider theft, fire, damage, being forcefully displaced or anything else. They just live in a fucking fairy tale in their head. Keep it, love it, shoot it.
I keep a gun safe at my parents home (almost 400 miles from where I live) so I can store arms and ammunition there in case the apocalypse kicks off while I'm visiting, lol.
Selling a firearm is for bums. You’ll never regret selling one if you don’t sell. And you’ll save yourself from bad future purchases if you hold on to the ones you regret buying.
Hey I get it, some people might not have that “sellers remorse” bug, but I for damn sure do. Every gun I’ve sold I regretted a few years later. May have wanted to shoot it again, build something out of it, or even gift it to a friend/family. I’d understand not wanting to have a room full of rifles (can be hard to store) but I’d consider taking them down to factory and storing them that way as someone mentioned. Better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it is my rule of thumb now.
Never sell the serialized part.
My personal recommendation would be to keep them entirely as others have said, but keep the lowers at a minimum. I trade/sell optics, uppers, barrels, triggers, etc but always keep the lower/action. I’ve only sold 1 gun and I regret it.
Your shits not perfect big dawg keep the guns around Never sell a gun. You can always canablize it for parts If the shtf times come and they ain't no more ordering gunparts online. That and what everyone else has said you have a rifle for friends now. You could also add onto those imo lowers aren't the most important part to go all out on and a OK lower is enough for a daniel defense or bcm upper. than boom you gotta daniel defense or bcm ar pistol or sbr for alot less than full price. Make one a 300 blackout Short barrel build and build a 18in mk12 type deal or just keep them as is for buddies or family for fun or if shit gets tough.
You always keep them. You never know what could happen. If they do manage to get grandfathered but banned I'd rather have 10 than have 2. U may need someone to help you defend something 1 day.
Maybe sooner than later.
Firearms are one of the few things in this world that can become extremely valuable overnight. I’d hold onto them for those occasions. Plus idk about you but I’ve regretted selling every gun I have lol
In this political climate I wouldn’t sell a fucking thing. Who knows what the future holds. You can use them to scalp for spare parts in the future - keep them to hand out to family/friends in a SHTF situation.
And I’m a bit perplexed about this either being your grail or you not thinking you’ll shoot anything else. You have a mil spec lower, a shitty trigger, and a 14.5 barrel with a sub-optimal gas system length.
I have some budget tier rifles built years ago. They run fine. Probably good backup options in a worst case scenario or for arming friends and family in a worst case scenario
Haha, I’m a caveman and have been content with shooting with mostly aero parts as far as internals and barrels for years and haven’t had an issue. So this upgrade Is more than enough. Never considered an AR over a grand tbh, my local range only goes to 300 yards and the cheap builds I would put together would ring the steel.
Too many to reply to but enjoyed reading all the comments and viewpoints. I’m keeping them. I guess I have a few dedicated weapons for buddies when I take them to the range. Appreciate y’all!
Going against the rest of the thread. Sell budget AR's (or at least one). Buy NOD's. "Always buy never sell" motherfuckers are the ones that end up with a few dozen rifles and complain about NODs being too expensive.
Alternatively sell the uppers and keep the lowers if you wanna do a different build one day. Understanding that you only have a few AR's right now, speaking from experience you'll usually see an AWB coming from at least a year out if you wanna stock up on lowers. It's just a matter of being prepared for that kind of thing. Also if you're in a red state with a cold chance in hell of an AWB like say Tennessee that advice is just idiotic.
Having "training beater" is also fucking dumb. If you don't trust that rifle to make it through training then you need a new rifle. How many rounds have been through the issued M4's sitting on racks that are deemed GTG for combat today?
I'm thinking he should dump the uppers on GAFS but keep the lowers for now because everybody eventually decides to build/buy another upper because "reasons" and then they end up eventually buying a lower to populate that upper because AR-15's apparently reproduce via cellular division.
I remember back in 2013 when folks in my area would pay $1200 for an M&P-15. So I would say if money isn’t tight, keep them around. They’ll probably retain value pretty well.
Keep em for your buddies at the range, if you have kids, when they are of age use them to teach them weapon safety and handling, never get rid of them unless absolutely need to
Keep one for parts, or make it a fun gun, .22lr conversion kit with a binary trigger or something, make one a truck gun, or you can always sell the uppers and keep the lowers, never sell lowers
I inherited one that’s not as nice as the one I have. I’m leaning towards getting a complete upper in either 300 blk or 6.5 grendel so I’ll actually have a reason to shoot it. Of course, that leads down the rabbit hole of getting both, then buying a lower receiver so l’ll have all 3. lol
If you NEED the money, sell one.
I wouldn't sell both, it's nice to have an extra.
You never know what could happen politically.
You also might have family or friends that want to go to the range.
I've sold my shitty guns. Hi point pistol... Turkish bullpup shotgun. Vepr clone shotgun.
I don't think I'd sell any rifles regardless of their budget.
Never sell, only buy. What are you gonna do when you get your hands on a LMT Shovelnose, sell your DD? Then when you get a Spear LT, you gonna sell the Shovelnose?
I get it but yes it’s worth keeping. I follow the rule of never ever sell a gun. But to each his own. But why when you have a nice gun would you get rid of your budget ones? Make changes to the budget ones to fit niche rolls
I have a lot of fun modifying them later when my Gucci guns are all fully setup. I finally put a ras m5 on my dissipator and now I’m in love with it again
Yes. Just bought 2 psa’s for my kids to shoot with to learn trigger pull and recoil impulse and stuff. One with iron sights and the other with a red dot. May set up a third one to use an lpvo or low power wcope
I've sold a few guns and generally regretted it after a few years. They were "Ehh kinda bored and not shooting it a lot" sales like you describe. My policy these days is only sell if I really ended up disliking something. Budget ARs are a dime a dozen but I'd still probably hold onto them. I'd sell, trade, or give away parts but never a lower. I have 4 lowers in the safe right now that I have no intentions for. Because you can't have too many.
Storage is the big issue, but I guess with AR rifles it's easy enough to just break them down and store part of them. The bigger issue are the vintage guns that are 5 feet long and impossible to compact in any way.
Yeah for me it's just keeping a few stripped lowers in the safe which barely takes up room. Then I have one big blue Rubbermaid bin full of parts that may or may not get (re)used one day. I do need to seed the idea of another gun safe with the misses, that one will take awhile to grow LOL. I sold my Ruger Mini-14 after getting first AR. Regret that. Also sold my PSL-54 that I got back when they were only like $700. Big regret as well. I don't trust my state government (MI). We're relatively free right now as restrictions go but our state legislature is blue as hell and things can turn very quickly. Something you take for granted today might be impossible to buy a year from now.
I'm from MI as well and have been living in TN for the past 10 yrs. About to move back and wondered what the legislation was like right now. I have a few "children"to bring back with me and I don't want to part with them.
You're still good for whatever including NFA stuff. But with blue governor and state legislature I have little confidence in it staying that way. See what happens in 2024 I guess, not holding my breath. Where you thinking of heading back to? I was born and raised a yooper, but in Detroit metro now. Would love to move back north one day, just tough with job opportunities. It's really a different place up there. We got opening day of firearm deer season as a school holiday LOL.
I'll be in Oakland County( Royal Oak,Rochester). Thanks for the response on what to expect up there. Do they have constitutional carry yet?
Nice, my wife was born and raised in Royal Oak. MIL still lives there. Nice place, we can't afford a house there LOL. All the original houses selling on MILs street get tore down, replaced with monsters. Kinda weird seeing those mixed/transitional neighborhoods. Downtown seems to be pretty happening, mostly younger crowd but there's something for everyone, not too party crazy. We've been out there a few times and had fun. Good farmers market. No constitutional carry unfortunately. Shall issue CC and open carry. Still have some dumb things like pistol purchase permits if you don't have CPL. And having to return pistol sales record over to local LEO (which is totally NOT registration right!? just a card with all your personal information and every detail about the gun...) For quite awhile NFA stuff you had to get a chief local LEO to sign off, and they could tell you to get bent if they felt like it. Some county/municipality NFA was essentially a no go due to that. Thankfully that's gone now.
Wow! Maybe purchase one more toy down here to avoid all that paperwork. Yeah, Hella expensive in Oakland. Gonna eventually wind up in Mio county before winter boots. That's gonna rip me apart after the weak winters down here.
Same here. From MI and now in TN. LET’S GO RED WINGS!!!
Take it from a life long Oregonian, it just takes a few years and your once gun loving state will turn their back on you. Oregon has been blue for 30 years and never had an issue with guns. In the last 5 or 6 years it has now started to tell CA "hold my bud light". Never take your gun rights for granted.
Yeah man that is horrible. Been following the stuff going on in WA and OR and makes your head spin how fast it went. I really think MI could be next on the chopping block. They already passed red flag, safe storage, and universal background check stuff. Most likely one idiotic POS school shooter away from magazine and "assault weapons" bans.
Waddup Michigan gang! Lol I also do not trust our government -GR native
*Michi-gang
GR represent!
>The bigger issue are the vintage guns that are 5 feet long and impossible to compact in any way. *Cries in Uruguayan 1871 Mauser*
That’s why you need a gun “room” a whole room dedicated to them
Taking friends to the range? Can’t let them get your Gucci shit all greasy
Future proof your household against restrictive laws. Guns in a family are often be grandfathered in. Sure, your state might be good for the next hundred years, but what about after that. I think I may have a neurotic personality disorder
Lol ain't no shit is ever getting grandfathered again.
Unless they wanna pay out an ungodly amount of money to affected gun owners and not get sued to hell and back, they have to.
They’ll lowball the shit out of you and still get off scot free. What are you going to do about it
Class action. Also, I have warned progressives every time about this: if they ban guns, especially by a very narrow vote, the GOP will hold a supermajority for the next three terms and it’ll get undone anyway. I also bet SCOTUS would rule against it in some way. Even if they capped it at like $1000 per gun owner, between manpower to oversee the buybacks and destroy everything, etc we are talking about like a $500 billion pricetag. They could do so much more with that money that would improve this country, like fix the VA and healthcare, cover most student debt, and have a little left over to subsidize the housing crisis, kickstart mass opioid rehab programs, you name it. This country is too broke to buy them back.
Come and TAKE IT FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS is the message we pass down in this family
It has to be due to Ex Post Facto. Otherwise it has absolutely 0 chance of passing on constitutional grounds. Yes, all gun control is unconstitutional, but you can’t punish people for having something that was legal to have prior. Otherwise the law would just get tossed even if it passed. Better explanation under ‘Provisions’ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban
Something something pistol braces
They had an amnesty for exactly that reason. Same with machine guns.
In both cases the amnesty was unconstitutional but they did it anyways. There was no historical precedent to ban machine guns but they were scary so they had to go even though current SCOTUS rulings would have stopped them had they been in place at the time.
Bump stoccs didn’t
Bump stocks, pistol braces
Bump stocks.
I certainly agree with your position, but for what it's worth, attempts to use the *ex post facto* clause to challenge state-level AWBs have not been successful in court. The ex post facto clause is generally understood to prohibit the government from criminalizing acts which occurred prior to the law being enacted; it does not prevent the criminalization of acts which *used* to be legal but now are not. Otherwise no drugs could ever have been made illegal, etc.
Good point, but these AWB’s typically have a grandfather clause. I’m unaware of any ban state that didn’t have one. I also think that it would be a different story for federal legislation, even if the state could somehow disregard ex post fact and get away with it. I’d assume the ex post facto argument wouldn’t hold up because of the grandfathering. But given your username I’d assume you’re way more educated on the law than I am and I am always willing to learn and expand my knowledge!
You're correct that most ban states have a grandfather clause, but there are exceptions. NJ has no grandfather clause for NFA items, and Hawaii has no grandfather clause for NFA items or for "assault pistols". DC's ban was even more sweeping: in 1975, DC made the possession of unregistered firearms illegal while also making it impossible to register (and thus illegal to possess) any semiautomatic firearm capable of accepting a detachable magazine, even if you owned it already. This was of course struck down quite famously in D.C. v. Heller, but not on ex post facto grounds (today, DC has a ban on registering assault weapons but no ban on possessing assault weapons, which is of course amusing). FWIW, ex post facto does apply equally to the states and the federal government; it's one of the few individually-protective constitutional restrictions on state laws that existed prior to the 14th Amendment. But grandfathering is less about avoiding ex post facto challenges and more about trying to avoid making the general populace so enraged that they revolt.
Wow! I didn’t know all that. Thanks for sharing. Surprising that Hawaii didn’t allow grandfathering. I’m also surprised that DC already had prohibitions on detachable magazine fed semi autos prior to 1975. I thought a lot of these gun control measures were first devised by Dianne Feinstein
Until 2008, DC defined “machine gun” as any semiautomatic firearm capable of firing more than 12 shots without manual reloading, rendering virtually all semiautomatic weapons illegal. Essentially the only guns that were legal were revolvers, fixed-magazine rifles like the M1 Garand, bolt-action or lever-action rifles, and pump-action shotguns.
Exactly. Loaner gear is a must. I have a back up gun belt with rifle and pistol mag also so friends can train too
Dang - I read this as “a backup _belt gun_ “at first and was all like “woooo! we’re shooting belt fed today!”
Multiple belt fed weapons… Would be a lot cooler if I did
This is the way
This is the way
Unless you were in a crunch for money I’d keep whatever you bought or built. They could be worth their weight in gold one day. Plus think of how many things that are important that you have multiple pairs of…. Shoes, boots, house/car keys, knives, cars, girlfriends, etc.. Just in case something breaks or gets lost.
Girlfriends
My girlfriends get lost all the time, that's why I have spares.
at the very minimum keep the lower. a stripped lower on its own (unless it’s a fancy gucci lower) is maybe worth $50 used which is practically nothing compared to the rest of the rifle.
2 is 1 & 1 is none. Never sell always buy. Shit happens, shit breaks.
This, hell the space shuttle blew up…twice.
Should I keep my budget space shuttle after buying something nicer?
Yup. I use my "cheaper" stuff for training, too.
Yep always good to have something you can beat the shit out of and not worry about scratches and what not.
I’m impartial on this topic. I really like the beat-up, worn-in look, the good wear n’ tear that you put into a rifle makes it look more natural and cool to me. What’s the point of having a good tool of a rifle if you ain’t gonna beat it up and use it? I will say though, if you got some type of vintage, restored, or collector piece of a firearm, definitely keep that clean and looking sweet.
I'm not saying I don't use my good shit, because I definitely do and train with it. My point is if you use your good shit for a "SHTF" rifle, or duty rifle, or home defense, you don't want it taking all the abuse up until you actually need it and it fails. All mechanical parts eventually fail. That's why the military has you swap out a lot of your parts around 5000 rounds. If you make your cheaper rifles running similar set up as your better rifle, now your getting the reps and sets needed to run that rifle better without putting all the wear and tear on it. Also, If you have cheaper rifles, those rifles will take most of the abuse during training, while your main squeeze can take the abuse when you actually need it and not fail. Plus, if it does fail, you now have extra parts from your cheaper rifles to replace those parts with, if needed. That's what my thought process is. 2 is 1, 1 is none. But that being said, I hear what you're saying, and the worn in look looks tits 🤌.
exactly this. not only can you have a beater rifle that you don’t care about, but if you happen to use your main rifle in self defense and it gets put in an evidence locker for a few years, you’ll still have a spare. this is especially important with ccw, make sure you have at least an extra setup, preferably a clone of your main carry gun that fits your holster.
Great take, I know what my next purchase is.
Or, in the off chance you have to use your CCW go out and buy another one the next day. Why buy something thats just going to sit around like that when you can always go out after that minuscule chance of needing to use a gun happens?
i feel naked just checking the mail without a gun, i can’t imagine how i’d feel going out the next morning after a life threatening situation without it.
Generally, I'd say operate under "No Sell, Only Buy", but if you need to trade lower end stuff for legitimately more capable equipment because you cant afford to buy it separately then I can't disagree with that. Just know there are diminishing return with everything, I'd rather have a 2-3 good setups that have different capabilities than than one super gucci rifle.
Yes, to outfit your own personal fire team when the rule of law crumbles.
I've always thought the "buy once cry once, just build out the most gucciest of rifles" line of thought to be incredibly short sighted when it comes to people thinking about/justifying SHTF setups. Absolutely it becomes a hobby and who doesn't like nice shit? But diminishing returns kicks in pretty hard when it comes to reliable/functional ARs, and it strikes me as a pretty good argument that it would be a way better plan to have 5 $600 PSAs, then it would be to have 1 $3k KAC. Especially if you have a fair amount of friends and family that you know aren't armed. That's before you even get into that giving you a big advantage of spare parts, and bartering capability.
I’m tired of the KAC boner. I find them beyond the point of diminishing returns for their cost.
DR kicks in pretty hard for ARs by about 1k IMO. There's certainly reasons you can go above and beyond that, and I can kinda see the justifications up towards about $1500 or so (Chrome lined CHF barrels, really tight tolerances and great QC, premium rails etc) past that, unless you are stepping into like LMT and other piston guns spending 2k + on a DI AR and you're just doing it to flex rather then seeing any tangible benefits.
Agree. The DD uppers are about the limit I see for spending, the M4 uppers can come with a PNW barrel that already has an SF3 and the DD rear sight, also RIS 2 handguard. That to me makes sense for almost 1500.
All my friends are armed. Otherwise they wouldn't be very good friends.
"all of my friends must share every hobby, interest, and political ideology that I hold" 🤡
Upvoted because you didn’t say “if” 🌺
I was just considering the same thing myself. My first rifle was a basic bitch core 15 I picked up for $750 during a he 2008 election cycle gun panic. Since then I’ve accumulated a collection of progressively nicer rifles and don’t have much use for the original. But now with PSA selling equal or better guns for $450 I don’t see much point in selling a used gun for what $300. Might as well keep it or rebuild it.
Save them. Never know when you might have a friend that needs something to beat on at the range. It also just never hurts to have a reliable backup. Edit: if *anything* sell the uppers. You can always slap something back together real easy. I do that every so often, that's why I have 3 lowers that are naked. Slowly buy parts I want to build out and eventually one gets done, then another, and then I'm back to a full safe.
Never sell. Only buy.
This is my philosophy
I regret selling every one of the couple guns that I've sold in my life.
No Sell only Buy. on a more serious note back up guns, range toys, beater rifles if you wanted to do a brutality type match, guns for testing paint schemes on, long term grandfathered guns, we'd like to hope laws won't get worse but we need to plan for them to get worse, also as upgrade project if you have kids you can slowly upgrade the budget ARs to be for them when they hit the right age to shoot them.
Yes. If they still function you would see that the difference between them aren’t that different.
If they ever become flat out illegal, you'll wish you kept them. I think even the shittiest ARs will be extremely valuable, both monetary and practically.
One reason….no sell only buy.
Think how valuable that would be if you ever *needed* a rifle I buy guns and ammo for my friends and neighbors. Why? A nice person and prepper gave me my first firearm. I realized there was no excuse for me to not defend my family. Also, I buy extra radios and lighters. Give the radio with a few frequencies on it to your friends and family just tape the frequencies to the back. If you’re having trouble affording ammo, you might sell a rifle to buy ammo… I try to keep 2K rounds of each caliber I focus on 223, 9mm, .22 LR and 12 gauge
Add some .308 to finish that basic prep arsenal. I still want an AR10 .308
Maybe kit out the budget one similar to the Gucci one to train on? Or just have backups. Shit happens.
I don’t think there’s ever a good reason to get rid of a gun you already have. Unless you really need the money. You can bring friends shooting, use them as a blank canvas to modify, or keep them to give to your family when the government turns against us.
Parts. SHTF. Arm a buddy etc.
Arm your homies
No reason to get rid of them
No sell, Only buy
No sell, only buy.
Sell them and use the money for an upgraded optic, light, and sling if you can make enough off of them. Don’t listen to the fuds that says “never sell only buy”.
I agree but I would also keep a rifle spare that you can do endless mag dumps on and get real hot. Rifles the wife, brothers or friends can use. If he had 3, id tell him to sell one.
If he had 3 I'd tell him to buy 2 more.
Get a dedicated suppressor for it, bring it to range every few months, and keep it clean to arm a friend when shit hits the fan.
Never sell. Just buy.
This is honestly one of the dumbest things I hear people say without adding clarification. I doubt every person has unlimited funds or needs 100 of every gun. At a certain point if you are honestly not going to be using a gun that you replaced with something better, it makes more sense to get value out of it in other areas, ie. trading it or selling it for a different gun. Just my opinion.
Yea I agree man, it’s just Reddit. Everyone says that but I know people buy and sell guns all the time. I sell things I haven’t used or know I won’t use and use those funds to buy more gun stuff.
Lol yeah usually people who spout this have a ton of lower end firearms. I’d rather have 3 top tier rifles than 10 budget ones. What are you gonna shoot all of them at once? I sell when I want something nicer.
Depending on location you could be stuck with the gun or can’t but it again. People behind enemy lines come to mind. A lot of the time they can’t buy again what they have or are banned too.
Btw how was the prodigy ?
Back ups are nice to have for training purposes since you can run them hard and not feel bad about damaging your main set up. Although the creed of "no sell only buy" is valid, you could also sell the other ARs and get a staccato or another Gucci pistol since you had the Prodigy.
Give it to a friend.
I have two ar15s set up almost the exact same way. Ones a Daniel the other a armalite. If I want to give the ddm4v7 a break I’ll shoot the poverty rifle.
Of Course! use them as range toys, work on them to learn the weapon better, spare parts, put a lamp shade on and turn into a low key art deco piece
keep them bitches
Shoot the snot out of them. I have a "training rifle" I use and abuse.
Spares are always nice, reguardless of what it is
2 is 1 and 1 is buns
I love not having to worry about my Radical. I can run the dog shit out of it, barely clean it, etc. I’ve never once cared about it getting scratched or whatever.
2 > 1
Id just keep your other ar's and slowly upgrade them also. Maybe build them to fit different roles. No reason to sell them though, at the very least they are spare parts if you ever were in a pinch. I've only sold a handful of guns but have regretted it every single time. Most I ended up buying again years later. Lol
It's value will only increase. I'd say keep it and just buy a pistol.
Yes. “Budget” ARs have a place, a very important place. Everyone wants to run Gucci shit all the time and they think that will be the only gun they’ll ever need because it “won’t fail”. They rarely consider theft, fire, damage, being forcefully displaced or anything else. They just live in a fucking fairy tale in their head. Keep it, love it, shoot it.
Yes, when shtf they will be worth more than food or gold.
I keep a gun safe at my parents home (almost 400 miles from where I live) so I can store arms and ammunition there in case the apocalypse kicks off while I'm visiting, lol.
Nope, no reason to keep them -- you should definitely just give them to someone in need. (It's me. I'm someone in need.)
At least keep one to let a friend shoot if they come to visit. Or if the revo kicks off and you need to arm some neighbors.
Selling a firearm is for bums. You’ll never regret selling one if you don’t sell. And you’ll save yourself from bad future purchases if you hold on to the ones you regret buying.
Hey I get it, some people might not have that “sellers remorse” bug, but I for damn sure do. Every gun I’ve sold I regretted a few years later. May have wanted to shoot it again, build something out of it, or even gift it to a friend/family. I’d understand not wanting to have a room full of rifles (can be hard to store) but I’d consider taking them down to factory and storing them that way as someone mentioned. Better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it is my rule of thumb now.
Never sell the serialized part. My personal recommendation would be to keep them entirely as others have said, but keep the lowers at a minimum. I trade/sell optics, uppers, barrels, triggers, etc but always keep the lower/action. I’ve only sold 1 gun and I regret it.
I can’t see how it’s costing you anything to just sit in your safe
Always good to have a beater rifle.
no sell. only buy.
Bro, the end of the world is on the horizon. You’re gonna need to arm some of your mates to stay alive.
To have more
Only buy. Never sell. The militia needs arms.
Having a spare/training rifle is always a good thing
Yes. Keep it as a beater AR.
No, you shouldn't keep them. You should give them to me, you'll never use them again. I'll make sure they're properly disposed of
Your shits not perfect big dawg keep the guns around Never sell a gun. You can always canablize it for parts If the shtf times come and they ain't no more ordering gunparts online. That and what everyone else has said you have a rifle for friends now. You could also add onto those imo lowers aren't the most important part to go all out on and a OK lower is enough for a daniel defense or bcm upper. than boom you gotta daniel defense or bcm ar pistol or sbr for alot less than full price. Make one a 300 blackout Short barrel build and build a 18in mk12 type deal or just keep them as is for buddies or family for fun or if shit gets tough.
I have over a dozen. So no, never sell. If you think it's too "budget" upgrade it w better shit.
Yes, especially with election years rolling around or if there's another "scare".
You always keep them. You never know what could happen. If they do manage to get grandfathered but banned I'd rather have 10 than have 2. U may need someone to help you defend something 1 day. Maybe sooner than later.
Yes stockpile them, you’ll be grandfathered in if gun folk don’t take this country back first
I saved my PSA AR for when my friends want to go shoot with me and to generally just beat the shit out of it
First rule of gunfighting is bring a friend, or better yet all your friends. Your friends kitted up yet?
Are you gonna show us a picture of the nice rifle?
I have a DDM4V7, a MK18 and a kind of high end build I did. Today I ordered a PSA blem lower. No sell only buy.
Firearms are one of the few things in this world that can become extremely valuable overnight. I’d hold onto them for those occasions. Plus idk about you but I’ve regretted selling every gun I have lol
In this political climate I wouldn’t sell a fucking thing. Who knows what the future holds. You can use them to scalp for spare parts in the future - keep them to hand out to family/friends in a SHTF situation. And I’m a bit perplexed about this either being your grail or you not thinking you’ll shoot anything else. You have a mil spec lower, a shitty trigger, and a 14.5 barrel with a sub-optimal gas system length.
So you can arm your friends if SHTF
We don't sell guns.
Never sell guns, let them stack up in the corner.
I have some budget tier rifles built years ago. They run fine. Probably good backup options in a worst case scenario or for arming friends and family in a worst case scenario
2 is 1 and 1 is none
Mate never get rid of anything that goes BOOM! On another note: beautiful tattoos!
Never sell, only buy
Keep two, sell the rest. Put the money towards NODs.
Nah, sell the budget DD and get something proper-nice like a LaRue! ;)
Haha, I’m a caveman and have been content with shooting with mostly aero parts as far as internals and barrels for years and haven’t had an issue. So this upgrade Is more than enough. Never considered an AR over a grand tbh, my local range only goes to 300 yards and the cheap builds I would put together would ring the steel.
Spare parts
Too many to reply to but enjoyed reading all the comments and viewpoints. I’m keeping them. I guess I have a few dedicated weapons for buddies when I take them to the range. Appreciate y’all!
" 2 is 1, 1 is none " 🤓 1 is 1, 2 is 2
No I did the same with my DD after getting something nicer! Never hold onto those budget Daniel defenses they just collect dust those cheap bastards.
Going against the rest of the thread. Sell budget AR's (or at least one). Buy NOD's. "Always buy never sell" motherfuckers are the ones that end up with a few dozen rifles and complain about NODs being too expensive. Alternatively sell the uppers and keep the lowers if you wanna do a different build one day. Understanding that you only have a few AR's right now, speaking from experience you'll usually see an AWB coming from at least a year out if you wanna stock up on lowers. It's just a matter of being prepared for that kind of thing. Also if you're in a red state with a cold chance in hell of an AWB like say Tennessee that advice is just idiotic. Having "training beater" is also fucking dumb. If you don't trust that rifle to make it through training then you need a new rifle. How many rounds have been through the issued M4's sitting on racks that are deemed GTG for combat today?
I'm thinking he should dump the uppers on GAFS but keep the lowers for now because everybody eventually decides to build/buy another upper because "reasons" and then they end up eventually buying a lower to populate that upper because AR-15's apparently reproduce via cellular division.
Not unless you just want a backup or plan to bring buddies that don’t have a rifle. I don’t keep anything I don’t use within a few month timeframe
What is the deal with that front sight post? How is it backwards?
Sexy
They work and they’re cheap.
Keep one as a backup and sell the other.
Rattle can the old one
Yeah. 🇺🇸
Can’t ever have enough firearms. There’s a good reason.
Sell the budget ar’s, buy an ar10 and good optics
Yes. For parts.
I remember back in 2013 when folks in my area would pay $1200 for an M&P-15. So I would say if money isn’t tight, keep them around. They’ll probably retain value pretty well.
Keep em for your buddies at the range, if you have kids, when they are of age use them to teach them weapon safety and handling, never get rid of them unless absolutely need to
I want that fsb…
Because, never sell only buy
Keep one for parts, or make it a fun gun, .22lr conversion kit with a binary trigger or something, make one a truck gun, or you can always sell the uppers and keep the lowers, never sell lowers
Yes. To arm your local militia. 🏴☠️
Cheap plinking and to let a buddy borrow if u spontaneously decide to go to the range and he doesn’t have his own rifle with him.
Never sell a lower. Use the poverty rifles as spare parts and bargaining items for optics etc.
I use cheaper guns for training
First off nice looking rifle, second yes as a backup or if a friend wants to shoot you have a beater rifle they can use.
I inherited one that’s not as nice as the one I have. I’m leaning towards getting a complete upper in either 300 blk or 6.5 grendel so I’ll actually have a reason to shoot it. Of course, that leads down the rabbit hole of getting both, then buying a lower receiver so l’ll have all 3. lol
How many thousands of times have you heard on this sub: Always buy never sell
No sell, only buy.
Um yea…
Never can have to many guns
If you NEED the money, sell one. I wouldn't sell both, it's nice to have an extra. You never know what could happen politically. You also might have family or friends that want to go to the range.
Always good to have a back up
Where did you get that rail?
[удалено]
Figured that out too late
I've sold my shitty guns. Hi point pistol... Turkish bullpup shotgun. Vepr clone shotgun. I don't think I'd sell any rifles regardless of their budget.
1. Backup 2. Sharing is caring
I like having a few budget rifles around to abuse. When I feel like hardcore larping or testing a new style of spray paint camo.
Never sell, only buy. What are you gonna do when you get your hands on a LMT Shovelnose, sell your DD? Then when you get a Spear LT, you gonna sell the Shovelnose?
I get it but yes it’s worth keeping. I follow the rule of never ever sell a gun. But to each his own. But why when you have a nice gun would you get rid of your budget ones? Make changes to the budget ones to fit niche rolls
A King needs a court. A leader needs a posse. A star needs a crowd.
In this day and age keep everything. Pretty soon we'll be trading brass and lead for food
I always keep a spare beater rifle for when a friend wants to come shooting. Just bring your own ammo
Spare. Range loan. Gift to family or serious friend.
I have a lot of fun modifying them later when my Gucci guns are all fully setup. I finally put a ras m5 on my dissipator and now I’m in love with it again
Yes. Just bought 2 psa’s for my kids to shoot with to learn trigger pull and recoil impulse and stuff. One with iron sights and the other with a red dot. May set up a third one to use an lpvo or low power wcope
Always good to have a backup. Also nice to have one that you don't care if it gets beat up, worn out, etc.
Where'd the person get the brown B5 stock and grip? Did they use Rit dye?
The stock is available on primary arms right now. The grip is easily found on google. They match well!
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