Gun Sales are up in California

[Destructo6]

No kidding. An article in the 18Dec99 Orange County Register, typically a libertarian viewpoint, tackles this gripping story. Actually, the article originated at the Scripps news service.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Interviews with gun-shop owners and statistics from state Department of Justice indicate that sales of guns, particularly semiautomatic rifle with such features as detachable ammunition magazines, are up from around 1,200 a day in California to as many as 3,000 a day in the past few weeks.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Friday that between Nov.1 and Dec 14, California saw sales of more than 91,000 firearms-about double the number sold in the same period last year.

"About half a million guns we estimate will be sold in California this year. That's about 200,000 more than in prior years," Lockyer told reporters. "There are more long guns and handguns in the number of expanded firearm sales."
[/quote]

Is there another classification other than long guns and handguns?

Here's HCI's take on the increased firearms purchases:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"I think a lot of it does have to do with some of the hysteria and advertising about Y2K," said Luis Tolley, Western director of HCI.[/quote]

No, it couldn't be that "the people" really do want to own guns of all types.

Maybe as the times get darker, we can see things more clearly.

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I offer neither pay nor quarters nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country in his heart, and not his lips only, follow me.
-Giuseppe Garabaldi

 

[Oleg Volk]

No kidding. Threaten people and expect them not to get arms?

Here sales are WAAAY UP, esp. handguns and AK/AR type rifles. Ammo is now bought in quantities of two cases per gun, one for practice, one to stash. Long lines in stores. Some are Y2K related...lots of others are simply responding to Clinton&Co. At least one formerly mostly hunting store now sells ONLY defensive arms, magazines and ammo...at a hefty premium

 

[chink]

HCI is soooo stupid. Gun sale are up cuz thats what happens when you ban guns. people buy them before they can't get them no more. seems to me that banning guns puts more guns on the street,than keeping them legal. In can personally attribute 1 complete ar rifle sale and 1 stripped arr lower sale to the ban. and my friends sl-8, second Ar lower were bought because of an impending ban.

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It ain't mah fault. did I do dat?

 

[ernest2]

The gun grabbing socialists are too
dumb to see that Americans are voting
against gun control with their pocket books!

By way of purchasing more guns!
And Ammo!

 

[4V50 Gary]

Why is that not surprising? History repeats itself as the same thing happened in 1989 when California enacted its first anti-semiauto ban. In response to that wonderful legislative jewel, virtually all wholesalers nationwide shipped their entire stock to California where gun owners eagerly grabbed them up. Those bozos in Sacramento don't learn.

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Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt

 

[Oatka]

Here's the latest from USA Today --
http://www.usatoday.com/news/ndssun05.htm

"12/27/99- Updated 01:16 PM ET

"Gun sales soaring at year's end
By Gary Fields and Derrick DePledge, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - Firearms sales are up substantially from a year ago, based on the number of background checks requested by licensed dealers. Advocates on both sides of the gun control issue say Y2K fears are among the factors in the surge in sales.

As of Dec. 22, state authorities and the FBI had conducted 1 million background checks on prospective firearm buyers. That is 14.7% higher than the 871,644 checks run during December a year ago.

The increase follows two busy gun-buying months. More background checks were requested in both October and November than in December 1998, the FBI's Paul Bresson says. Gun dealers say December is traditionally the month of highest gun sales nationwide.

John Snyder of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said sales have increased because of hunting, Christmas gift giving and terrorism concerns.

"The fact that there are all these threats around the world makes people realize they are the final protectors of their families," he said.

A recent report by the Violence Policy Center, a gun control advocate, blames part of the surge on ads by some firearms companies. They play on worries that computer glitches caused by the Y2K bug will cause shortages and possibly result in violence.

In one ad, Wilson Combat touts its new Millennium Protector .45 Auto as a good weapon for self-defense "should one of the worst-case Y2K scenarios happen."

Wilson Combat did not answer requests for an interview.

At Koscielski's Guns, Ammo & Surplus in Minneapolis, Mark Koscielski says he has seen a huge increase in business recently: "Instead of just a few boxes of ammunition, folks are buying stuff by the case."

But Dewey Hannah of Haywood Gun Traders in Hazelwood, N.C., says he has seen a big decrease in sales since President Clinton took office. "We have common-sense mountain people up here who don't worry too much about Y2K," Hannah says.

The instant background check system has been in use since Nov. 30, 1998. A person who has been convicted of a felony cannot purchase a gun legally.

Few statistics are collected on monthly gun sales. But from Nov. 30, 1998, through Dec. 22, about 9.7 million background checks were done. The actual number of guns purchased could be higher because a person can buy more than one gun per background check."




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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.

 

[oberkommando]

I have read that Dec 23 was highest single day ever with over 67,000 checks made. Buy while the getting is still kinda, sorta, maybe a little good. Maybe in the future they will limit the stockpiling of only 2 feathers as you could make an arrow with 3.

Zero Tolerance or Final Solution? Can't tell anymore, they both sound the same. Maybe when I put my peltors on it will sound different?

 

[bookkie]

I've been saving my money up, figuring to make a few good deals after the y2k blows over. All those people who bought them and don't use them on a regular basis will be out in the secondary market after they find out it was all for naught.



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Richard

The debate is not about guns,
but rather who has the ultimate power to rule,
the People or Government.
RKBA!

 

[Destructo6]

Notice how HCI and the like point to Y2K as the reason for increased sales? Here in CA, Y2K paranoia is secondary if not the tertiary reason for new purchases. Most of the people who come into the stores ask the salesguys one question, "which guns are going to be banned?" and want to see only those guns.