Re: Has the NFA market been affected by panic buying?
On the dealer level, I wouldn't say that I've seen a panic like we've witnessed with ARs...but it IS safe to say that NFA sales have gone up by a decent amount.
Any SBRs that were in stock anywhere can safely be assumed to have sold within a week or two of the shooting. SBR uppers disappeared about the same timeframe. Suppressor sales have been higher than normal over the past few months it seems, but not by 50%. Getting inventory in on a nearly just-in-time basis is very tough with NFA items, and worse when there's even a slight surge. OTOH, it's way too easy to wind up with too many cans that don't sell. From what I've heard, machinegun prices haven't increased by very much yet.
Most of the demand is from new buyers, or people who own a few things but want to stockpile anyways. Those new buyers are just now realizing all of the other peripherals that go along with ARs, and suppressors are part of that package. Anything related to the AR is seeing a distinct uptick in sales because of it, and cans just take longer to get hoovered up.