Election brings increase in gun sales
Elizabeth Taggart
Gun sales across the country have spiked in the time just before and after the election of President-elect Barack Obama.The FBI reported a 49 percent increase in instant background checks during election week from the same time last year, according to the Arizona Republic, and numbers reported by the FBI for NCIS show a more than 15 percent increase for the month of October.
Caswell, a Mesa gun shop and indoor shooting range that’s been a local establishment for more than 20 years, has seen increases in sales for all types’ firearms and ammunition.
“It’s really been across the board,” said Chris Watson, a Caswell employee of almost three years. “Even the shooting range has been busier lately.”
Watson attributed the increases solely to the election of Obama and fears about the President-elect implementing stricter gun control laws and not the current economic conditions.
He said there isn’t usually an increase in sales around election time, but admitted that it would depend on who is running.
“In general, Democrats have certain views and Republicans have certain views, but Obama will reinstate gun laws back from Clinton in the ’90s,” Watson said, referring to the automatic weapons restrictions enacted by President Clinton in 1994 and allowed to expire by President Bush in 2004.
The restrictions included limiting magazines to 10 rounds; banning collapsible stocks, bayonet lugs, heat shields; and bans on the importation of certain weapons.
Brian Dille, an MCC professor of pol-itical science, said it was his understanding that the sales were driven by a fear that Obama will drastically change gun control laws despite the fact that gun control isn’t really a top priority for him.
“My guess would be that Obama will probably reinstate the restrictions that expired in 2004, but I don’t anticipate more than that because of the political firestorm that would occur,” Dille said.
The President-elect has said that he believes in common sense regulations, but hasn’t really gone into detail about the issue, which means the changes could be minor or drastic and his claims would still be fulfilled,” Dille added.
“He says he wants to have reasonable controls, but his definition of reasonable is different from a gun enthusiasts,” he said.
“Gun laws do not control crime. Many statistics show increases in gun laws do not reduce crime. If you’re going to introduce laws, start with criminals first, not law-abiding citizens,” Watson said.
He added that most of the restrictions enacted by Clinton affected “unremarkable things to weapons” and that pre-ban rifles were still available after the ban, just at a higher price.
Dille said the Clinton’s main argument in 1994 was that military style weapons shouldn’t be on the market because of the amount of damage they can do.
He added that even though it was hard to know whether or not the regulations were effective, he was still in favor of them.
“The people who use those are rare and the vast majority of them are going to be responsible.
“The problem is do you want the guns with high impact and high casualties on the market? It’s a trade-off because there are the few crazies out there and you want to limit their access to the really lethal stuff,” Dille said.
