Florida Gun Applications Jump 50% In September
By BIRUSK TUGAN ([email protected])
Published: Oct 31, 2001

TAMPA – Although her family had guns, Noelle Scolaro never touched one
growing up.

But at 31, Scolaro, a single woman who often travels alone, started thinking
about buying one.

Then came the Sept. 11 attacks. They “finalized my decision,” Scolaro
said. “This has kind of hit us very close to home.”

Scolaro, who has her own business in Brandon, bought a handgun on credit and
has been practicing at a Tampa firing range. She has plenty of company.

The number of people seeking background checks for gun purchases in Florida
jumped 50 percent in the weeks after the attacks, according to figures from
the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FDLE agents process the
applications, which are required by law and match the names of prospective
buyers against criminal records, warrants and domestic violence injunctions.

Applications surged from an average of about 18,000 in September of 1999 and
2000 to 27,460 last month, the FDLE said. The surge began the day hijacked
jets hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Some local gun shop owners say ammunition sales are up, too.

Charles Allen, who owns University Gun & Pawn Shop on Fletcher Avenue near
the University of South Florida, said his business has doubled since Sept.
11.

“A lot of people who put it off decided not to put it off anymore,” Allen
said.

The number of applications for concealed weapons permits is up as well,
according to the Florida Department of State, the agency that issues those
licenses.

Between Sept. 11 and Oct. 15, 2,755 people sought concealed weapons permits.
During the same period last year, 2,391 people applied for permits – down
from 2,679 during the same period of 1999.

It is difficult to gauge how much of the increase was triggered by the
terrorist attacks; the state does not track that.

“We don’t know how much of it is because of everything that’s happened,”
said FDLE spokeswoman Jennifer McCord. “We don’t ask people why they
purchase guns.”

The Difference A Day Makes

But the numbers tell their own story.

The first 10 days of last month, firearms dealers sent the FDLE 5,110
requests for background checks. That is less than one-fifth of the month’s
total.

The requests shot up Sept. 11. On that day alone, FDLE got 1,505 requests
for background checks – more than twice the number received the day before.

The FDLE does not break down the numbers, so it is not known whether certain
areas of the state are generating more gun sales than others, or whether
more purchases are being made by a particular age group or gender.

The surge goes beyond Florida. After declining slightly in recent years, the
gun business is up nationwide, said Victor Romano, the vice president of
marketing at the National Shooting Sports Foundation in Newtown, Conn. No
doubt it’s at least partly the result of people’s concern about terrorism,
Romano said.

“But we don’t have any ways of measuring that,” he said.

A secondary reason for the increase could be the onset of hunting season,
Romano and McCord said. Nationwide the season generally starts in September,
Romano said. But in Florida it usually starts in October, said McCord –
though “it might have started early this year.”

More Nerves, More Guns

There is no uncertainty, however, over the link between gun sales and
terrorism in Bob James’ mind. James owns Bay Area Pistol Range on Broadway
near the Orient Road Jail in Tampa.

“We see a lot of people who are edgy after Sept. 11,” James said. “Even
people who have guns buy new ones.”

“Everybody says it’s because of burglars that they buy guns,” he said,
“but after Sept. 11, the nervousness is there.”

James has replaced traditional bull’s-eyes with targets bearing a likeness
of Osama bin Laden, suspected of supporting the terrorist attacks.

“People come here even during lunch break and say `Give me a couple of bin
Ladens,’ ” he said. It’s a way of letting customers vent and show
patriotism, he said.

Scolaro was practicing at James’ range Tuesday.

“We had seen it happening in other places, but no one thought what happened
would happened there,” she said of the attacks on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon. “If that happened there, it could happen anywhere.”

Scolaro will feel “a little safer and secure” with her new handgun, she
said. It cost several hundred dollars, and she’s paying for it in monthly
installments, she said.

Wearing ear protectors, she took aim at a bin Laden target and fired.

“I’m not a crazy woman; I am not against Muslims,” she said. “But it
feels good to take out a bad guy.”