VA-ALERT: Freelance-Star article on gun boom

Date: Mar 28, 2009 9:51 AM

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VCDL’s meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings.html

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Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html

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With a gun show in Richmond this weekend, we’ll see if the recent

uptick in gun and ammo sales continues. I expect it will.

Here is a nicely done article by the Fredericksburg Freelance-Star on

that surge in sales. I am quoted starting around the middle of the

article.

Days until the veto-override session: 11

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/032009/03282009/453719

http://tinyurl.com/d5s7g9

We’re afraid and armed WEAPONS PURCHASES ON RISE

Business is booming at gun shops

BY CHELYEN DAVIS

Date published: 3/28/2009

President Barack Obama has stimulated at least one part of the

economy: gun sales.

Fears that he and Democratic congressional leaders will outlaw or

restrict guns and ammunition, along with worries about the economy,

have helped spur a hefty increase in sales of guns and ammunition.

Sturm, Ruger and Co. reported a $48 million backlog in orders as of

Dec. 31, and a 42 percent increase in sales in 2008.

Smith and Wesson earlier this month reported a 45 percent increase in

handgun sales.

The Virginia State Police, which tracks each request for a background

check–required for each gun purchase–reported a 19 percent increase

in 2008, including a 60 percent increase in November over the previous

November.

The usual year-to-year increase is about 3 percent.

And Georgia Arms, a large ammunition-sales company, posted on its Web

site that it has a “huge increase in demand” and that shipping times

are five to seven weeks behind.

“Obama’s been the best gun salesman,” said Anthony Ball, owner of B&B

Pawn Inc. in Fredericksburg. “Everybody’s scared to death he’s going

to take away their guns.”

A whole wall of Ball’s store is lined with racks of rifles, shotguns

and a few assault rifles. Cases are full of handguns, and Ball says

guns are a big seller in his store.

While most of his stock is used guns, he says it’s nearly impossible

to get new guns or ammunition from suppliers. And when you can find

new guns, prices are way up.

At The Range, a shooting range in Stafford County, it’s the same story.

“I’m still waiting on guns I ordered back in December,” said Paul

Vincent. “It’s hard to find ammo, it’s hard to find the gun you want.”

The Range doesn’t sell a lot of handguns. It’s more of a shooting

range, but Vincent said interest in all of the Range’s services has

increased in the past few months.

The classes he offers–a basic how-to-shoot class for beginners, and

the class required to get a concealed carry permit–have seen

participation quadruple.

“Normally I just schedule one here and there,” Vincent said. “Now it’s

every week.”

Vincent said there’s a surge in gun sales any time a Democrat gets

elected president. People get paranoid, he said.

“We saw this during both of Clinton’s elections. And Y2K,” Vincent said.

Philip Van Cleave, of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, said he’s

definitely seen an increase in every aspect of the firearms

business–gun sales, ammo sales and attendance at gun shows, where

guns, ammunition and other items are sold.

“People have waited hours to get into a gun show,” Van Cleave said.

“Normally you’d be able to get in in a few minutes or just walk in.”

A normal gun show in Northern Virginia, he said, would see 7,000 or

8,000 people. The last one had 17,000.

Interest in Van Cleave’s organization has gone up as well–his

8,000-strong e-mail list is now at 11,000 and climbing.

Like Vincent and Ball, Van Cleave credits fears about possible

restrictions on guns for spurring the interest in them, but he calls

that one part of “the perfect storm, a series of things coming

together.”

One of the other things is fear about the economy.

People worry the economy might actually collapse.

Van Cleave said people think that would lead to civil unrest, and that

they should have a gun in case they’d have to defend themselves and

their homes.

Some people are also worried there will be another terrorist

attack–one that could put government services, like police, out of

commission.

It has all contributed to an uptick in sales that Van Cleave says

started back around October and “went crazy in December.”

The greater demand for guns and ammunition leads, of course, to less

supply, but less supply also leads to greater demand. People get

worried they won’t be able to buy something later, and so they buy

more of it now.

“It’s a good problem” for those who sell guns and ammunition, Ball

said. “I’ve got people coming in that I’ve never seen before. People

buy a lot out of fear.”

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !