Post-election gun sales soar over fears of more control
Harry McLain Jr. saw the spike the day after the election, when his sales doubled over the previous year then shot even higher Thursday. “They are buying more guns than normal, and they are buying the guns the government doesn’t want them to have,” said McLain, who owns a gun shop near Binghamton and was among the sellers gathered Saturday for a weekend gun show on Main Street in Clarence.
Gun owners figure a Barack Obama administration, combined with a Democrat-controlled House and Senate, will impose stricter laws, so they are buying guns now, especially semiautomatic weapons. The fears manifested Saturday in Clarence have appeared around the country as well.
Last month, as an Obama victory appeared likely, background checks for gun purchases rose by 108,000 over the previous October, a 15 percent increase. As of Oct. 26, they were up about 8 percent for this year, according to the FBI.
In Colorado, the “Insta-Check” background check required for a firearm sale was jammed, with waits exceeding two hours Wednesday. Shop owners and buyers told the Denver Post that Obama’s victory and Democratic gains in Congress were at the root of it.
Obama has said he respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms but favors “common sense” gun laws. Gun-rights advocates interpret that as meaning he will at least curb the ownership of assault weapons and concealed weapons.
As a U.S. senator, Obama voted to leave gunmakers and dealers open to lawsuits. As an Illinois state legislator, he supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on all firearms.
During an appearance last month in Ohio, Obama sought to reassure gun owners by saying: “I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I won’t take your handgun away.”
But to Sara Loos of Rochester, Obama seemed to be choosing his words carefully. She sells books about guns and hunting at gun shows and has picked up on the prevailing mood of gun owners and would-be owners.
“Yes, the guns are selling right now because people are afraid they are not going to be able to get them,” she said. “People are definitely concerned.”
Not every merchant in Clarence could report an uptick in sales. Bob McQuade of Albany County did not see a surge for his high-end hunting and sports rifles. Nor did Richard Haralabatos for his handguns. But they, too, foresaw a swing toward gun restrictions because of the changes in Washington.
“I am going to put it this way,” said Max France, who deals mainly in antique and collectible weapons from an office in Colden. “In the White House, we had Dick Cheney, who was probably the most pro-firearms person in the White House in years.”
Cheney had even parted with the official Bush administration position on a Second Amendment test case before the U.S. Supreme Court by signing on to a brief urging justices to strike down the District of Columbia handgun ban.
The Supreme Court did so in a 5-4 ruling, which some gun-rights advocates in Clarence take as a sign that the court’s current makeup serves their interests. But Obama could appoint justices who would swing it the other way.
On the state level, Democrats, for the first time in more than 70 years, control the Senate, Assembly and governor’s office, which, France said, makes conditions ripe for more restrictive gun laws.
During the campaign the National Rifle Association had warned that Obama would be the “most anti-gun president in American history.” But Mark Tushnet, a Harvard Law School professor who has written a book about the gun debate, told the Associated Press that new firearms regulations will be a low priority for Obama and a Democratic Congress facing a global economic crisis and two wars.
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said his organization will continue to press for what he calls sensible restrictions: background checks at gun shows (which are done in New York), a ban on military-style assault weapons and a crackdown on the illegal gun trade. He says he believes he has the new administration’s backing on those issues but says fears of a broader crackdown are unfounded.
McLain said he sold eight weapons Saturday, including five assault weapons that many gun-rights advocates prefer to call semiautomatics.
“When the government doesn’t trust me with a gun,” he said, “I don’t trust the government.”
