Obama win fires up gun shops

Obama win fires up local gun shops
by Ambrose Clancy
Published: November 25, 2008
Tags: 2nd Amendment, Barack Obama, guns

Want to make a killing in an economy hurrying south? Sell guns.

Starting in October and accelerating with the election of Barack Obama, firearm retailers across the Island followed a national trend by reaping record sales. Although there are no statistics on how many guns have been sold, the FBI during the week of Nov. 3 received more than 374,000 background requests on potential customers from gun shop owners across the country, an increase of almost 49 percent over the same period in 2007.

Jon Sweezey, owner of The Camp-Site Sport Shop in Huntington Station, stood in the firearms section of his shop, mobbed with customers one recent afternoon. Sweezey hasn’t seen business this brisk since the aftermath of Sept. 11, with October sales up more than 20 percent over October 2007.

Guns were purchased by regulars and first-timers alike, he said, and sales of military-style rifles have been especially healthy. Everyone in the gun business on Long Island has seen sales spike the past six to eight weeks, Sweezey said.

Several gun retailers refused to speak about their business, some claiming they were too busy, others that they just weren’t interested in speaking with the press.

Tom Cushman, Long Island regional director of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, said he’d spoken to gun dealers across the Island and all reported soaring sales.

“As fast as they can get firearms in they’re going out the door,” Cushman said. “Same thing with ammunition. Gun owners are apprehensive about Obama.”

Firearm and Second Amendment advocates, concerned the Obama administration and a Democratic-controlled Congress will push stronger gun control laws, believe the time to stock up is now. Some say the feds won’t just add more restrictive laws but will come after gun owners and confiscate weapons.

Advocates are pointing to a controversial question posed by Obama’s transition team as evidence of draconian policies on the way.

Sweezey said apprehension comes from knowing the facts. “I think the Obama administration will absolutely change laws,” Sweezey said. “His record speaks for itself.”

As a member of the Illinois state Senate, the president-elect co-sponsored a bill in 2000 which would limit handgun purchases to one per month and voted to support a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons.

Obama voted the same year against letting people violate local weapon bans in cases of self-defense, but also voted in 2004 to allow retired police officers to carry concealed weapons. He supported a requirement that manufacturers provide child safety locks with firearms and supported a handgun ban in the District of Columbia which the Supreme Court overturned in June.

Campaigning in Ohio in October, Obama said, “I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I will not take your handgun away.”

This doesn’t cut any ice with Sweezey.

“You can promise anything,” he said. “But I look at his record and what he’s done and that speaks more to me.”

Cushman said Obama has broken new, dangerous ground in the field of anti-gun advocacy. He pointed to a question on the survey for potential officials in the new administration asking, “Do you or any members of your immediate family own a gun?”

The question asks for registration information, the firearm’s use and whether it has been the cause of personal injuries or property damage.

“This is something I’ve never seen in 30 years of being involved with the issue,” Cushman said. “Any time you have a list of legitimate owners of firearms there is no other goal except to ultimately create a confiscation list.”

But Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-Garden City, said some people are over-amped on the issue. She noted that Congress is still largely made up of pro-gun members. Any gun control legislation would be an uphill fight.

“The idea that the White House and Congress being in Democratic control will produce unreasonable restrictions on gun owners and those who would like to own guns is not realistic,” McCarthy said.

Stan Martin, a Huntington lawyer, browsing in the busy crowd at The Camp-Site, described himself as an avid hunter who has pursued game as far afield as Africa.

Asked how many guns he owns, Martin smiled and said, “You don’t ask that question. It’s like asking someone how much money they have.”
Many gun owners were frightened the new administration would confiscate guns, he said, but it was not in the cards. Plus it could never be implemented. There are more than 200 million guns held in private hands.

“It’s like immigration,” Martin added. “What, you’re going to send 12 million people back?”

At Uniondale’s Coliseum Gun Traders, the owner was too busy to speak with a reporter, said an employee named Jody. Asked how business was, he said, “Look, it’s three deep here. People are panicking.”