Cabela's can kiss my @ss...
Maybe they have since came to their senses, I'd sure like to think so, but I'm not buying it about them being so supportive of firearms rights as the driving force behind pulling out of the show.
I was in town picking up several things the day of the shooting, and I closed down the Cabelas near me. I always make a regular path through the store and take note of the .223 ammo inventory (checking to see if they have my loads in stock), AR mags, and their AR inventory, since they seem to get some pretty good looking models in stock from time to time. I was there after they closed for business that day. There were dozens of AR mags, and what I'd estimate to be hundreds of boxes of different loads on the shelf, and a dozen or so AR's on the rack at Close Of Business the day of the shooting.
That night I heard about the shootings, and decided I would go back the next morning and stock up before the rush on ammo, mags, bullets, primers, etc etc hit.
I arrived at the store 10-15min after opening (I live 3miles from the store, left my house at 9am). I found an empty shelf where the .223 ammo should be, I found empty racks where the AR mags should be, and the entire end of the rifle rack where the AR's should have been was cleared out.
I asked the clerk, "I was here last night, I know you have .223 ammo, where did it go?"
His response was, "We got a call from corporate last night, we had to pull all of the AR stuff and ammo off of the shelves until we find out what's going to happen in Washington".
Understandable. I don't have to agree with it, but I understand it. So I picked up primers, powder, and bullets, and left.
Just to keep my finger on the pulse, I stop back every 2-3days on my way home and just listen to what their gun counter people are saying.
Over the next couple days/weeks, I overheard one clerk telling a customer, "no, we're out of AR's right now, you'll just have to keep stopping back by, they sell fast every time we get a shipment in. We had 40 AR's come in yesterday and they sold out in 20min".
Seriously? Is that really feasible? An unannounced, no back-order shipment of $50,000 in AR-15's came in on the same day, and somehow they magically sold them in 20min? They don't have the man power to serve 40 people at their gun counter, and I'm fairly certain nobody walked in and bought 40 AR's at once. But this guy expects us to believe that they're getting regular shipments of 40 AR's at a time, and they're all selling that fast?
Beyond that, whatever happened to the inventory that they HAD PULLED FROM THE SHELVES? If they're selling out faster than they can order it, why had they pulled the inventory in the first place? My gut tells me that they pulled them from the shelves and are holding inventory to sell at marked up prices in the coming months. Regardless of the truth to that, they're absolutely full of crap that they sold out. The shelves are bare because they ADMITTEDLY pulled inventory, not because someone bought them out.
I also overheard a guy asking about bulk 223 ammo. The clerk responded, "just keep checking back in the store. We're getting shipments of new 223 ammo every day, but it sells out fast." I casually chatted up their gun counter manager about a revolver I wanted to order the day after, said, "man, it's getting crazy trying to order 223ammo from anywhere, even bullets are hard to find now." The gun counter manager's response was, "yeah, I mean we can't even get in orders of .223. They aren't even taking orders at distribution right now because they don't know when they could get it in stock." So one clerk says "we get shipments everyday, but it sells out fast," when their manager admits "we can't even place orders for it right now because we can't get it," does that make sense to anybody?
Let alone the new signs at every register "Ammunition purchases are limited to 10 boxes per customer." When asked, the checkout girl said "yeah, but that meanst 10 boxes per type, they're trying to limit how much ammo of each type a person buys." So then I asked, "Really? How does that work? I buy .44mag ammo in boxes of 20, 25, and 50. So your "ammo limiting rule" would let me buy the same round in a lot of 200rnds, or 500 rnds. Or say I buy 10boxes of buckshot, I'm limited to 50rnds, whereas 10boxes of .22lr would be 5,500rnds. What are you REALLY trying to do?"
Cabela's is a business, and I can respect that business is a dirty game, but they don't garner my respect by putting themselves in the news by following suit of other REAL gun-rights supporting companies and pulling out of this show.
Frankly, they flat lie to people in their stores about what's happening, for no other reason than to create panic purchases, drive up prices, and keep people "checking back in the store", knowing that the more foot traffic they have in the store, the more people will buy OTHER items while they're there (there's a reason grocery stores keep milk in the back of the store).
The other alternative in my town is a Gander Mountain, which at least has been honest. "We sold out, and we can't get more, but we're trying." That's the response I have gotten from every employee there that I have asked about AR's, mags, and 223ammo since the CT incident. Guess which one has been getting, and will continue to get my business, and which one won't...
So yeah, Cabela's can fly off a cliff for all I care...