Almost a week after Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., armed with a military-style, semi-automatic rifle, Greenwood gun dealers reported Thursday heavy sales of guns and ammunition in advance of potential increased federal gun controls.
“I still believe there’s a certain amount of fear of not knowing what’s going to happen. People are just afraid they are not going to be able to get them,” said Howard Smith, owner of Smith & Co.
Lanza, 20, used a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle with 30-shot magazines. He also possessed two high-capacity 9mm semi-automatic handguns, a Glock and a Sig-Sauer.
All three weapons were purchased by his mother, Nancy Lanza, whom he killed before going to the school. He later committed suicide as law enforcement was closing in on the school.
A 1994 federal assault weapon ban, which expired in 2004, prohibited new semi-automatic rifles from having features such as bayonet lugs, flash hiders and pistol grips. The law also limited the sale of new civilian detachable magazines to a maximum of 10 shots.
However, the law didn’t ban any class of weapons based on the size and type of bullets used, including the types of high-powered weapons used in the most recent mass killings. It also permitted the resale of used weapons and clips manufactured prior to 1994.
When the federal law expired in 2004, the Connecticut legislature passed its own assault weapon ban, which largely duplicated the lapsed federal law.
The run on guns began way before the Newtown shootings, said Ward Gilbert, manager of Outlaw Sporting Goods. Sales were heavier than expected when the store opened in August, he said.
However, after the re-election of President Barack Obama “gun sales went sky high,” apparently because of fears that Obama would restrict gun ownership, Gilbert said.
Gun sales jumped in advance of the election as well.
A Nov. 11 article in the London Telegraph reported that in October the number of people applying to buy guns through the federally required National Instant Criminal Background Check System increased by 18.4 percent.
This was similar to when Obama was elected in 2008, the paper reported, when 12.7 million background checks were performed. That was up from 11.2 million the year before, the paper reported.
“Fear of not being able to get a gun drives a lot of the sales,” Gilbert said. “The consumer has gone into a panic mode. They’re trying to gobble up as much as they can.”
Sales were good in August, and then “after the election, our sales just took off,” he said.
Actually, Obama expended little political capital on gun control despite a series of mass shootings in his first term. But earlier this week he said last Friday’s deadly shooting in Connecticut had been “a wake-up call for all of us.”
Obama on Wednesday directed Vice President Joe Biden to produce recommendations on new gun laws and pledged to push for them without delay.
Gilbert said that since the Newtown massacre, the instant background check on prospective individual sales now takes anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes to complete, an indicator of how many background checks the FBI is processing at any given moment.
Dick’s Sporting Goods, a national chain, suspended sales of “modern sporting rifles,” such as the Bushmaster, in the aftermath of Newtown, but Walmart stores continue to sell them.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg.com reported that Walmart stores in five states, including Pennsylvania, Kansas and Alabama, were out of stock of rifles similar to the Bushmaster.
“We’ve been really strong with firearms and ammunition,” said Stephen Youngblood, manager of Greenwood’s Walmart SuperCenter.
According to Bloomberg.com, Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters defended the “safe and responsible sale of firearms in areas of the country where they are sold,” according to David Tovar, a spokesman for the retailer.
Bloomberg also reported that talk of a new federal ban on magazines over 10 shots has also increased demand on eBay and at stores throughout the country.
Smith said he doesn’t sell a lot of “tactical rifles,” but his ammunition sales have been very brisk since the election. “People think, ‘It’s guns now; ammunition next,’” he said.
Nikki Barton, manager of Crazy Charlie’s pawn shop, said that store sells “lots of guns all the time.” However, she said, the shooting in Newtown doesn’t seem to be driving gun sales there.
“With it being Christmastime, we sell a lot of them anyway,” Barton said.
- Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@
gwcommonwealth.com.
