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["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

I know nothing about guns, but what I saw on the news said that the biggest 
demand was for guns like AK47s. Isn't that an assault rifle? Do guns like 
that have a legitimate use?

Lynn Wigglesworth

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "bob ford" <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2008 11:29 AM
Subject: [Homestead] Gun sales staggering


> This is from the Denver Post.  I have been seeing articles like this from 
> all over the country.  The one thing most reporters get wrong is 'assault' 
> in the description of rifles.  These rifles operate exactly the same as a 
> 12 gauge semi-auto shotgun or 22 rifle that my grandather bought before my 
> birth, and I owned before I was 10.  I think these reporters typically 
> have as little experience with or knowledge about firearms as many of our 
> lawmakers.
>
> I'll be going to one of the largest gun shows in the country , next month, 
> just because it is local.  I rarely go to gun shows, and lord knows I 
> already own plenty of firearms and ammunition.  But, it does give a good 
> barometer of how things are going in 50% of the country.  Well, with guns, 
> more than 50%.  A simlilar article in a Texas paper had the shop owner 
> taling about a middle age couple coming in the day after the lection, 
> wearing Obama shirts, worried that they needed to buy more weapons, right 
> away.....  ;-)    ........Between Clinton , w/de congress, and obama, 
> w.dem congress, this country will have quadrupled the number of civilian 
> owned firearms in under 20 years.  It is a gret time for one industry 
> anyway.........bobford
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10910395
>
> Home > Denver & the West
>
>
>
> Obama's record on firearms triggers run on sales in state
>
> By Jason Blevins and Nancy Lofholm
>
> The Denver Post
>
>
>
> Chris Walker, left, an employee at Jerry's Outdoor Sports in Grand 
> Junction, shows an AR-15 assault rifle to Chuck Porter of Fruita. Porter 
> and other gun enthusiasts have concerns about President-elect Barack 
> Obama's record on firearms. (Photos by Barton Glasser, Special to The 
> Denver Post )Related Articles
> Nov 7:
> Fears of a Dem crackdown lead to boom in gun salesBuying guns, for fear of 
> losing the right to bear themGRAND JUNCTION — John Faulkner and his wife, 
> Brenda, thought Wednesday was a good day to buy a handgun.
>
> "I'm 37 years old, and this is the first time in my life that I am really 
> scared for our future," said Faulkner, an oil field worker, as he perused 
> the collection of weaponry in A Pawn Shop here.
>
> At Aurora's Firing Line gun shop, Steve Wickham was also purchasing. 
> "Anything I can get my hands on," he said as he cradled a $699 9mm 
> handgun.
>
> Same thing in Lakewood: "I was selling guns before I even opened the 
> door," said George Horne, owner of The Gun Room. "It's gone completely 
> mad. Everyone is buying everything I've got on the shelves. Sales have 
> been crazy."
>
>
> By midday Wednesday, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's "Insta- Check" 
> background check — required for the sale of a firearm and typically about 
> 8 minutes long — was jammed with waits lasting more than two hours.
> Gun-shop owners and buyers said the urgency was fueled by Barack Obama's 
> presidential win and Democrats' increasing their majority in Congress.
>
> "I'm here because of Obama," Wickham said. "I think he's misinterpreted 
> the Second Amendment. It's not about the right to hunt. It's about the 
> right to defend yourself."
>
> The Grand Junction pawnshop is decorated with bumper stickers: "Obama 08" 
> with hammers and sickles on each end, "Obama for President of Afghanistan" 
> and "Don't Be a Victim. Buy a Gun."
>
> Potential threats outlined
>
> Buyers, who were mostly going for assault rifles and handguns, were 
> sighting them on the bumper stickers.
>
> Behind the cash register, a list issued by the National Rifle Association 
> outlines the potential threats a President Obama would have on Second 
> Amendment gun rights: prohibitive excise taxes on guns and ammunition, 
> bans on sales and transfers of all semiautomatic weapons, bans on 
> right-to-carry permits and more.
>
> One customer left with two new assault rifles and said he had already 
> bought 30 weapons since
>
> A variety of assault rifles and other guns sit on display at Jerry's 
> Outdoor Sports in Grand Junction, Colo., Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008. (The 
> Denver Post | Barton Glasser)Obama began his campaign for president.
> "And look at this," he said, unwrapping a black rifle from a plastic 
> cover. "I'm not talking BB guns."
>
> Across Colorado, gun shops reported brisk business Wednesday as hunters 
> and gun enthusiasts began to stockpile in anticipation of a Democratic 
> president and Congress whittling away Second Amendment gun rights. The FBI 
> is reporting that gun sales have increased 10 percent over purchases at 
> this point last year.
>
> Jerry Stehman told an endless wave of customers at his Jerry's Outdoor 
> Sports store in Grand Junction to come back in two hours to pick up their 
> firearm purchases. For the past 10 days, Stehman said, customers have been 
> gathering cases of ammunition and multiple guns.
>
> "We don't know where this character is coming from or what he's gonna do 
> to us," Stehman said of Obama. "But I can tell you it's been good for 
> business." The crush of business shows no signs of subsiding.
>
> "It will be extremely busy until Obama decides to do anything," said 
> Richard Taylor, manager of Firing Line, which bills itself as Colorado's 
> largest gun shop and has seen its stock of assault rifles dwindle from 
> several dozen to a mere few in recent weeks. "And that's the real problem, 
> the uncertainty of what he is going to do."
>
> Obama, who reportedly has never fired a gun, has followed Democratic Party 
> lines in his Senate and Illinois statehouse votes regarding gun control. 
> He supported the controversial handgun ban in Washington, D.C., which the 
> Supreme Court shot down earlier this year. He has voted in favor of 
> several gun-control measures and increasing taxes on ammunition and 
> firearms.
>
> "A deep-rooted hatred"
>
> The 4 million-member NRA dedicated $15 million of its $40 million campaign 
> this year to painting Obama as a threat to the Second Amendment. In a mass 
> fundraising letter sent to members this summer, NRA president Wayne 
> LaPierre wrote, "Never in NRA's history have we faced a presidential 
> candidate — and hundreds of candidates running for other offices — with 
> such a deep-rooted hatred of firearm freedoms."
>
> Obama's campaign, in a statement labeled "Supporting the rights and 
> traditions of sportsmen," said he "will protect the rights of hunters and 
> other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport and use guns."
>
> Gun owners worry that a Democratic administration and Congress would 
> support a return to President Clinton's gun ban, which lasted 10 years 
> before sunsetting in 2004. That ban prohibited magazines capable of 
> holding more than 10 rounds and certain semiautomatic assault rifles with 
> cosmetic features such as lugs for attaching a bayonet.
>
> "Not only are they likely to revisit the Clinton ban, they will possibly 
> make it more restrictive by banning more types of firearms altogether," 
> said Tony Fabian, a Castle Rock attorney and president of the Colorado 
> State Shooting Association, which is the state's division of the NRA.
>
> Several gun-shop owners contacted by The Denver Post on Wednesday said 
> sales had been exceptionally brisk in the past two months.
>
> "The avid gun owners are picking up items that were part of earlier bans 
> or things the Democrats typically talk about when they talk about gun 
> control. Anything semiautomatic. Magazines for more than 30 (rounds). 
> Assault-type guns," said Tim Brough, owner of Rocky Mountain Shooters 
> Supply in Fort Collins. "I think it's a legitimate concern. Democrats 
> typically want to pass more gun legislation, and now you've got a House, 
> Senate and Democratic president, so it seems likely we will see more gun 
> regulation."
>
> Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins AT denverpost.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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