Apparently, the badguy weapon of choice (at least in NYC) is no longer the “assault weapon” as loudly proclaimed by the media. No, this week it’s the lowly Hi-Point 9mm. For a brief period, I owned a Hi Point C9, and you can see my review of it here. To say that I was underwhelmed would be putting it mildly, and I eventually sold the Hi-Point, saved up a little bit more cash, and purchased a Taurus PT92 – which incidentally does not suck the big one.
Back to the article regarding the apparent wide-spread use of the Hi-Point for criminals in New York, one section caught my eye.
Selling for as little as $250 on the street, the High Point 9-mm. dominated a list packed with cheap firepower.
$250 for a Hi-Point? Man, someone is making an absolute KILLING (ha-ha) of the resale of these things. I bought mine for $125 brand new, and you can get them from FFLs via Gunbroker for as low as 100 bucks.
This does illustrate a point about the high blackmarket demand for handguns, a demand which is not abated by any gun control laws. Frankly, the most interesting part of this article to me is the economic nature of the blackmarket. I must confess a fascination that a cheap, unreliable firearm commands an illegal price more than double what it would retail for to a lawful citizen.
While this may be slightly morbid, I’d be really interested to see what the markup for good quality firearms, which models are the most popular, etc. I suppose it’s what I get for being a Business major in college.
The higher price is a risk premium to cover the dangers involved in trafficking in contraband.
I suppose we could assume that more expensive handgun models are usually stolen instead of purchased.