Printable VersionNot all Lake Havasu City gun stores have experienced the run on guns reported by gun outlets across the nation last week.
Still, there are worries about the future of the shooting sports among the mainstream in the local gun community, said Marlene Duncan, president of the Lake Havasu Sportsman Club.
“The people who are in the gun community are very concerned — am I going to maintain my rights?” Duncan said.
Rumors of a 500-percent tax on ammunition have brought on shortages of the supplies used to reload shells, Duncan said.
“People are getting prepared for what? We really don’t know ... It’s a fear of the unknown,” she said.
Sam Scarmado, owner of Sam’s Shooters Emporium, reported sales of both guns and ammunition in the last three weeks were up 260 percent over the corresponding period last year.
“Friday was the third best day in the history of the store,” Scarmado said.
Last week the Associated Press reported that gun stores across the nation were reporting a surge in sales in response to the election of Democrat Barack Obama as president.
Data was not available to confirm the increase, but according to the FBI, background checks for gun purchases in October were up 15 percent over October 2007 and checks were up about 8 percent for the year.
Scarmado also attributed increased sales to his customers’ fears that Obama — whom Scarmado called “an Islamist Marxist” — wants to “make the Constitution go away.”
Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Monday that gun sales typically increase before the holidays, but that much of the surge reported in the media is due to marketing.
“It’s to the great advantage of the gun industry to tell people gun sales are way up,” Hamm said.
“Gun sellers are familiar with their audience. They’re aware of the fears of some gun owners that someone’s going to take away their guns, and they play off that,” he said.
Hamm said he believes a minority of gun owners is responding to the apparent fear mongering over Obama’s election.
“There may be some people out there that are paranoid enough to think a change of administration is a reason to go out an buy guns. I don’t think the majority of gun owners are that paranoid,” Hamm said, adding that the U.S. Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the right of Americans to bear arms when it ruled 5-4 to strike down the District of Columbia’s 32-year ban on handguns.
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.
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.”
But according to the Associated Press, Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, discounted Obama’s assurances.
“I don’t think he’ll be able to stand up to that anti-Second Amendment wing of the Democratic Party that’s just been spoiling for the chance to ban America’s guns,” LaPierre said.
On its Web site, the NRA has listed a permanent ban on assault rifles as one of four items on what it calls Obama’s “Gun Ban Agenda.” The others have to do with releasing federal firearm tracking information, requiring gun show dealers to perform background checks and “child-proofing” firearms.
The NRA opposes all four initiatives, calling them, “designed to ban guns and drive law-abiding firearm manufacturers and dealers out of business.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story. You may contact the reporter at dparker@havasunews.com.
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