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November 13, 2008

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The Gun Rush

Just how significant is the spike in sales of certain genres of firearms since the November 4 election?

Fears that the incoming Obama administration and a Democratic majority in both Houses in Congress will seek to reauthorize the so-called assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 have driven many firearms enthusiasts to purchase firearms that may be affected if such a prohibition takes place.

Not surprisingly, many post-election gun buyers are being drawn to the semi-auto AK-47 and AR-15 rifles, a platform that many feel could likely be targeted for possible sales restrictions.

There are a lot of numbers being tossed around about the election-inspired gun-buying frenzy, with the Associated Press reporting that sales across the country have increased from 30 to 40 percent in recent weeks.

As I blogged here on Tuesday, CNN reported that the FBI received more than 374,000 requests for background checks on gun purchasers—a leap of nearly 49 percent from the same period in 2007—during the week of November 3 to 9.

While it would be difficult to determine exactly to what degree sales have increased, I offer Gun Shots readers with a reliable indicator from one of the country’s foremost suppliers of firearms accessories and gunsmithing tools and supplies; Brownells, Inc.

According to Larry Weeks, Brownells Media Relations Manager, “anything AR” is “blowing out the door” at the Montezuma, Iowa catalog facility and warehouse.

To put things in perspective, Weeks said sales of the company’s most popular AR 30-capacity magazine have increased 1,500 percent (this is not a misprint) compared to the same period one year ago.

In real numbers, the company sold 150 times more SKUs of the specific model hi-cap AR magazines during the week of November 4-11, 2008 than it did during the same seven-day period in 2007.

J.R. Absher 

Comments

firedog

Why should this be a suprise. Gun owners have elected a slate of people who are closet Marxists whose plan is to dismantle the Constitution. Create a crisis (the economic collapse), promise change which will put political leaders and their super rich backers (Soros and Buffet) in control of the unemployeed masses, shut down your critics (Steyn,Sowell, Williams, Ingrham etc), activate your brown shirts (gay actvists, acorn, illegal aliens) and disarm the those who may very well fight back. Read the book that Hitler ,Stalin and Mao devised. Keep your powder dry.

duane

150 times more sales doesnt mean a whole lot unless you know the original number sold last year. If he only sold 1 clip during hte same period last year, then he sold 150 this year, not a huge ammount. But if he sold 1,000 last year, thats 150,000 and thats ALOT of clips by anyones estimation.

Gary

It would be interesting to know how many of the purchases are coming from repeat customers.

My brother worked in a sporting goods store during the period leading up to the disaster that wasn't--Y2K--and he said that they experienced a rather large spike in sales in the months leading up to January. However, he also said that most of the sales were to a small group of individuals who purchased multiple guns on multiple occasions.

william giordano

I'm scratching my head. I wonder why anyone would believe that any law passed by the Dems would grandfather in the posession of " assault weapons ".What they want is an out and out ban. They are probably getting wet just thinking about all the semi-auttomatic firearm, including .22s and shotguns that they can seize and turn into plowshares. I also wonder at manufactures such as Remington spending a fortune to develop the R 15 in todays political atmosphere. Sure, such a ban would go to the Supreme Court but who knows what the court would look like by that time. One good thing in this mess is that Obama will be up to his neck in trying to make sense of the economy for at least two years. However, I heard on Fox News this morning that a questionaire had gone out to all potential cabinet members. One question was " Do you or any member of your family own a firearm ". That, friends, says it all

Bob

Yep. They're going to show their true colors as soon as one of the Justices dies or resigns.

jcarlin

1500% is 15 times the amount of sales.