Each individual has to make their own decisions what and when they buy. We are in a global economy like it or not. If you want to stop buying Handis and just buy used, then that is a decision I respect. Of course if every one does as you, there will be no more Handi rifles; period. I guess we buy Rossi rifles?
As for the other world, but specifically US problems; high oil prices, high wages, low over seas wages, foreign owned companies, goods being made out side US, etc. There are no simple answers. It is easy to blame "greedy" oil men for the high cost of crude oil, but that is not the whole problem, much too simplistic. We have oil speculators driving up oil prices, we have more world demand for oil - China's economy is booming and they are using more and more oil - environmentalists have stopped drilling and exploration for domestic oil are just a few of reasons oil is high. You can go on and on just why oil prices are high with no easy solutions. Want to drop oil prices? - quit buying gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, etc. If everyone did that then oil prices would drop, but we all know that ain't going to happen. Alternative energy sources are looking more attractive every day. We may have to adapt our personal ways. And that is just one thing, not to mention the unions, big companies and the rest of it - NO SIMPLE ANSWERS. If there were easy answers, it would have been taken care of. Most people want to belly ache about how bad it is and try to blame some one for their plot, when for the most part it is their own fault, me included. The boom times since WW II are over. Gone are the days of unions demanding higher wages and companies just passing it on to the consumer - they can't. The consumer will buy it made in Canada or Mexico or China or Korea or where ever they buy it cheaper. No more cheap energy, high wages, big profits, get used to it.
At least petemi has made a stand. If enough people feel as he does, then the Handi will go the way of the Do-Do bird, if not then Handis will go happily along. The people will speak with their pocket books. That is what it is all about, choices. Some have been good and some have been bad. When we make a bad one individually or collectively, then we have to pay the consequences.