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Supply not Meeting Demand

SATRP

Master Class
Founding Member
My friend is desperate for a TRP .45 ACP. He has his name on at least 3 vendors' waiting lists. He's not sure whether he'll get one.

He does have 2 handguns both of which are of good quality but not of TRP excellence. One's a 9MM & the other is a .40 S&W. He's asked my opinion about suitable self-defense handguns, especially 1911-A1 models. I've told him they're many good handguns, but the TRP is the crème de la crème of factory production 1911-A1's.

He has a CCW, which is equivalent to a Black Amex card in CA. He's been in the pharmaceutical industry since Methuselah was a toddler. While he rarely carries medicine samples, dopers and sundry dirt dags don't know it. Hence, they're prone to thinking that a pharmaceutical administrator is likely to be in possession of medicine. His necessity for suitable protection is obvious.

His handgun criteria: 100% reliable, ease of operation, speed to battery, ease of concealment, quick to reload, and powerful. He asked me what I carry. While I rarely carry (I'm not in his line of work.), I told him that when I do carry, I carry a SA EMP 3 9MM in urban areas and a SA TRP .45 ACP when I'm in wilderness areas where I might have to defend one of my kids from a bear with bad intent. That piqued his interest. I explained that in business attire, a full-size TRP in a good holster on a good gun belt would be easy to carry concealed. He is a big dude. He's a legitimate 6-4, about 230. After extensive elucidation, he wants and needs a TRP .45 ACP. But he can't find one.

He gets it that the only way to survive a gunfight is to not get in one, and that if avoidance is not possible, he can't take rounds. I've intimated that should he become a target of robbery and he's holding medicine samples, he might consider giving suspect(s) medicine if it would avoid a gunfight. It was later that I thought about his unenviable professional responsibility. He travels the world searching for pharmaceutical grade analgesics and other meds needed by physicians to treat patients. Many countries' labs cannot produce meds that meet FDA's standards. He's told me many foreign labs produce junk that the FDA will not allow into the USA. Physicians will not medicate patents with it. Fentanyl is one such drug in high demand among physicians, but labs produce junk that physicians will not use. As we know, outside of physician application, fentanyal is more deadly than a .45 ACP round. That's when it hit me: what would he do were he transporting a controlled medicine to FDA for approval and he were robbed? Because of his decades' knowledge of medicine, he knows that in wrong hands, medicine in his possession could cause the deaths of many people. Would he risk handing over to armed robbers a deadly controlled substance that has the potential of killing many people? I've never asked him. I won't ask him. I'd rather not know. I wouldn't want to be him. I can see why he needs a SA TRP .45 ACP.

Dirt bags who looted pharmacies stealing meds that can cause death have exposed themselves to arrest for murder. If they were to sell stolen pharmaceuticals to a doper who ingested it, OD'd, and died, the slinger would be good for 2nd degree murder. The same concept applies to my friend. Were he robbed of medicine that can cause death and were death to result from meds robbed from him, all involved in the crime would become principals to 2nd degree murder. My guess is my friend often thinks about such a scenario. Should he lose custody of meds than can cause many deaths, I'm sure he'd become basket case material.

Use of any medicine without care of a physician is risking death. Hence my friend's professional ethics and responsibility.

The problem my friend has is he can't find a TRP .45. I asked him why he thought that finding a TRP was more difficult than finding the map to the Lost Dutchman's Mine. I'm sure his pharmaceutical experience and knowledge of supply and demand were his foundation for his immediate answer: it has to be a damned good handgun that's in high demand. It is.

After thoroughly considering my friend's professional ethics and responsibility, congress might want to consider giving scientists who transport deadly substances/materials limited law enforcement authority thereby attaching qualified immunity while they're engaging in transporting meds and deadly material. They should be able to carry handguns across state lines. Handgun manufacturers might want to consider giving them handgun purchasing preference.

As you can tell, I've given this considerable thought.

I will disclose that I've never asked him specifics of how he gets pharmaceutical samples to FDA for approval. My guess would be commercial shipper (FedEx, UPS, etc.) would be risky. My guess is samples are personally handed to FDA scientists with meticulous record keeping. He has emphasized to me that shoddy record keeping is almost a certain FDA audit.

My point: I hadn't considered potential for professionals to become victims of armed robbery of their potentially deadly medicines & chemicals. Cyanide has legitimate scientific application. In hands of demented whack jobs, a tiny amount could murder many. People who transport deadly chemicals must be able to prevent them from access to psychopaths. So why does government force professionals/scientists to jump through hoops in order to carry handguns to protect us from psychopathic murderers who'd love to rob them of their deadly meds and chemicals?

Merely a winded reflection of what I had erroneously assumed was a simple quandary...
 
Every distributer in the firearms industry is a couple weeks out in shipping anything thats in stock, they are that behind....on in stock items. Dealers are snatching up everything the can in a desperate attempt at getting stock. This seems like a good time to use gun broker, because unless your dealer is a mega dealer they are not on the top of the list for allocated items and have to fight to get things that are popular.
 
Agreed.

I sold a house last week (FINALLY - closing was a NIGHTMARE), and one of my first stops was my local FFL.

Empty shelves.

They have six PALLETS of .40 ammunition...but that's about it. I'm considering a 1911 just for the sheer joy of shooting, and possibly an AR for home defense...but the pickin's are SLIM for either one. I have a friend with multiple ARs, and I'll have to see about taking them (and her) to the range for some familiarization with ARs in general, so I have a better idea of what I'm looking for. As far as the 1911, I know I want a 9mm (sacrilege, I know) mainly for ammunition consolidation - I already carry an XDs 9mm, and the 1911 9mm carries one round more than a .45. The FFL had one R.O. Elite...but it was in .45. Beautiful gun, very well balanced...but not what I'm looking for.

Much as I'd love to...somehow I don't think this money is going to burn a hole in my pocket anytime soon. COVID...riots...election...Christmas...possible election RESULTS...I don't see the industry catching up anytime soon.

Maybe I need to start reloading...
 
I’m on a waiting list as well at 4 different FFL’s for this one.
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I felt a little dirty spending money in there yesterday, but Dick's had an entire endcap full of 9mm 115fmj. 0.24/rd.

I guess buying ammo (HANDGUN ammo, at that) from Dicks is the closest I can get to a stick in the eye to the owner, so...I dropped the $70 cash I had on hand, and have enough to do some practicing this weekend.
 
I felt a little dirty spending money in there yesterday, but Dick's had an entire endcap full of 9mm 115fmj. 0.24/rd.

I guess buying ammo (HANDGUN ammo, at that) from Dicks is the closest I can get to a stick in the eye to the owner, so...I dropped the $70 cash I had on hand, and have enough to do some practicing this weekend.
I feel the same way at my Richards store, but they have ammo
 
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