DAAT -- Gun sales spike amid fears of federal regulation
Friday, February 06, 2009 By Brian McVicarstaff@muskegonchronicle.com
President Obama has been in office less than a month, but that hasn't stopped many West Michigan firearms dealers from referring to him as "gun salesman of the the year."
While the president has yet to set foot in their gun shops, they credit Obama -- and the gun-control measures some firearms owners fear he will usher into law -- for the spike in gun sales they say they've seen since the election.
Sales "are probably up 50 percent since the election," said Gary Foster, who owns Gary's Guns in Muskegon. "There's no doubt about it, some people are nervous Obama's going to take their guns."
Besides pistols, gun dealers say semiautomatic assault rifles, such as the AR-15, have seen the biggest increase in demand.
"Those are hot right now," Foster said. "The wait for one of those used to be a couple weeks long; now it's up to four to six months."
Although it's difficult to say how high gun policy sits on Obama's agenda -- it's already crammed with a recession and two foreign conflicts -- one Michigan gun expert says some changes could be in the works.
Steven Dulan, who sits on the board of directors of the Michigan Coalition For Responsible Gun Owners, a Lansing-based pro-gun rights group, said an assault weapon ban is the most likely piece of gun legislation to emerge.
"It could be similar to the one that ran from 1994 to 2000," Dulan said, referring to a 1994 assault-weapon ban that covered 19 types of military-style assault weapons that a Republican-controlled Congress chose not to renew in 2004. "That has a shot now that we have single party control of the federal government."
A.J. Christiansen, a 60-year-old Fruitport Township resident, hears similar statements from fellow gun owners.
"There is the perception out there that something is going to happen," he said. "I don't know anybody who's rushed out and bought a gun since the election, but I don't doubt that there are people out there who did."
The number of Muskegon County residents carrying a concealed weapon also appears to be on the rise.
In 2008, 543 Muskegon County residents received a permit to carry a concealed weapon. That's up from 286 in 2007 and 391 in 2006.
Mike Hiles, a Holton resident who occasionally teaches a concealed weapons class at Northwest Shooting Supply in Twin Lake, said it's difficult to pinpoint why the increase has occurred.
"People carry a concealed weapon for a lot of different reasons," Hiles said, adding that the number of people expressing interest in his class has climbed since the election. "Maybe they want it for protection or maybe they want it just because it's their right to have one."
An uptick in gun sales doesn't alarm Joel Fricano, a Grand Haven resident who has worked in the gun industry for more than 30 years.
He says he saw the same thing happen when Bill Clinton took office in 1993.
"You always get a few people who come in after an election fearing their guns will get taken away," said Fricano, who owns J Fricano Gunsmith in Grand Haven. "They are always scared that someone will come in and do something radical."
AI
