Gun sales brisk after election

The Daily Inter Lake

and The Associated Press

Gun sales are booming in Flathead County and elsewhere in Montana, driven by a strong belief that President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats will tax and restrict everything including ammunition and pistols, according to some gun buyers and sellers.

"We're doing really good business," said Joe Power, manager of the gun department at the Sportsman and Ski Haus in Kalispell. "Usually in November after the hunting season begins, we get a slowing of sales, but this year it's really peaked."

Power said gun sales started picking up about two weeks ago, and there was a noticeable increase after the election, with customers expressing worries about Obama and the Democratic Congress pursuing gun-control measures.

There has been a particular interest in military-style firearms, such as the AR-15, Power said.

Ron DeStein, manager of the gun department at Snappy Sport Senter in Evergreen, has seen a similar trend.

"They are coming in and buying the more military types of weapons," DeStein said on Friday. "The first two days after the election it was kind of hot and heavy but [sales] are cooling down now."

In Helena, Rex Seeley, owner of Montana Outdoor Sports said: "Obama has been extremely good for business. Guys are buying everything."

As in Montana, gun enthusiasts nationwide are stocking up in apparent concern that tough new gun laws are on the way.

Jim Norgard of Roy said he saw the run on firearms coming and stocked up on ammunition before the election. Browsing though books at a Helena gun show, Norgard said he understands why people are buying now rather than waiting.

"Oh yeah, there are restrictions coming. No doubt about it," he said.

Michael Reynolds looked at rifles at the gun show, and said he might buy one before Obama takes office.

"He will make it hard to buy one; it's just a matter of time," Reynolds said.

During a campaign in which he spent a lot of time and money in the gun-friendly West, including Montana, Obama said he would take no one's guns and supports common-sense gun control. That has not eased the fears of gun owners.

Seeley said that among people in his store he hears concern that all guns will be restricted, something Seeley finds highly unlikely.

Because of the speculation, Seeley said, people are buying everything, not just the pistols and assault rifles that he sees as the most likely focus of any potential restrictions. Even standard hunting rifles and shotguns are flying off the shelves, he said.

Ammunition, too. Seeley said he ordered 120,000 rounds over the past couple of days, and already has much of it pre-sold to his customers. He worries he might be unable to get more readily.

"While I am online placing my order, the product is disappearing," he said.

Seeley said he does not see an immediate end to the sales boom.

"Perhaps when people run out of money," he said.

It's a similar situation elsewhere in the United States.

When 10-year-old Austin Smith heard Obama had been elected president, he had one question: Does this mean I won't get a new gun for Christmas?

That brought his mother, the camouflage-clad Rachel Smith, to Bob Moates Sports Shop in Virginia on Thursday, where she was picking out that special 20-gauge shotgun - one of at least five weapons she plans to buy before Obama takes office in January.

"I think they're going to really try to crack down on guns and make it harder for people to try to purchase them," said Smith, 32, who taught all five of her children - ages 4 to 10 - to shoot because the family relies on game for food.

Last month, as an Obama win looked increasingly inevitable, there were more than 108,000 more background checks for gun purchases than in October 2007, a 15 percent increase. And they were up about 8 percent for the year as of Oct. 26, according to the FBI.

No data was available for gun purchases this week, but gun shops from suburban Virginia to the Rockies report record sales since Tuesday's election.

"They're scared to death of losing their rights," said David Hancock, manager of Bob Moates, where sales have nearly doubled in the past week and are up 15 percent for the year. On Election Day, salespeople were called in on their day off because of the crowd.

Obama has said he respects Americans' Second Amendment right to bear arms, but that he favors "common sense" gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he'll at least enact curbs on ownership of assault and concealed weapons.

As a U.S. Senator, Obama voted to leave gun-makers and dealers open to lawsuits; and as an Illinois state legislator, he supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on all firearms.

During an October appearance in Ohio, Obama sought to reassure gun owners. "I will not take your shotgun away," he said. "I will not take your rifle away. I won't take your handgun away."

Gun advocates take some solace in the current makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 this summer to strike down the District of Columbia's 32-year ban on handguns.

For now, gun rights supporters hold a narrow edge on the court, but Obama could appoint justices who would swing it the other way.

Franklin Gun Shop outside Nashville, Tenn., sold more than 70 guns on Tuesday, making it the biggest sales day since the shop opened eight years ago. Guns & Gear in Cheyenne, Wyo., also set a one-day sales record on Tuesday, only to break that mark on Wednesday.

Stewart Wallin, owner of Get Some Guns in the Salt Lake City suburb of Murray, Utah, said he sold nine assault weapons the day after Obama was elected. That same day, the gun store Cheaper Than Dirt! in Fort Worth, Texas, sold $101,000 worth of merchandise, shattering its single-day sales record, store owner DeWayne Irwin said.

One Georgia gun shop advertised an "Obama sale" on an outdoor sign, but the owner took it down after people complained that the shop appeared to be issuing a call to violence against the country's first black leader.

But Mark Tushnet, a Harvard Law School professor who has written a book about the gun debate, said new firearms regulations will be a low priority for an Obama administration and Democratic Congress facing a global economic crisis and two wars.

"Maybe the gun-show loophole will be closed, but not much else," he said in an e-mail. "I'd be surprised, for example, if Congress enacted a new assault gun ban."