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Calif. Gun Sales Up in Past Weeks

.c The Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – With a new gun-control law taking effect next
month, state officials say there has been a boom in firearms sales across the
state in the past few weeks.

“Everybody is trying to get it while they can,” said Pat Glaze, owner of
the Cordova Shooting Center in Rancho Cordova. “My sales are probably triple
the normal level for this time of year. It’s mostly the guns they call
assault rifles, although we don’t like to call them that.”

Semiautomatic rifles with detachable ammunition magazines have been
particularly popular, gun sellers say.

Licensed firearms dealers reported selling at least 91,089 handguns, rifles
and shotguns between Nov. 1 and Dec. 14, the state Department of Justice
said. That’s an average of 2,070 a day, 86 per hour or 1.4 every minute. At
least 52,021 were sold during the same period last year.

The number of guns sold may be even higher, because officials count only
dealers’ record of sales. More than one gun may be recorded on each form.

There are different explanations for why sales are up, including fear of
Y2K-related problems, but most observers blamed the spike on a state law that
takes effect Jan. 1 to ban most assault weapons from changing hands.

Over the long term, gun sales are down. California dealers’ records of gun
sales fell from 642,197 in 1993 to 342,540 last year.