Gun Sales Surge In U.S.

Gun owners are packing heat in record numbers, fearful of stricter gun control under the Obama administration and higher crime in a sour economy.

Some states and counties report a surge in applications for concealed weapons permits since the November election.

Applications already have hit a record this year in Clay County, Mo.,  says Sheriff Bob Boydston.

In the past, applicants tended to be middle-aged men, he says, but recent applicants include "grandmothers, older folks, young women, young men." They also say they fear gun control, he says. Last week, Boydston spoke with an elderly couple seeking a permit. "They are positive the president is on the verge of coming to our homes and taking our weapons," he says.

Interest groups on both sides agree that demand for permits is up because of economic uncertainty and concerns about a new president and a Democrat-controlled Congress.

"People pay attention to politics. … They're afraid of another effort" to try to enact more gun control, says Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association. "Part of the concern is spurred by the economic downturn and fear that crime will go up."

Florida gun owners are grabbing up concealed-weapons permits at a record pace.
It might be concern for President Obama’s record on guns, or fear that a bad economy will cause crime to rise, or reaction to last year’s guns-at-work law. Or maybe a combination of all three is behind the rapid rise in applications for pistol-toting permits, state officials say.

“We’re still sitting on about 50,000 applications,” said Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson. “We’re getting in about 14,000 or 15,000 a month and whenever they get a good slug out, they’re getting another 15,000 in.”

Bronson went to the Legislature last spring for authorization to hire 61 temporary employees -- bringing the total to 202 -- who have helped whittle down a backlog that then stood at 90,000 for all types of concealed-weapon permits. The backlog, alone, was roughly equal to all the applications received in 2008 -- 90,331 -- and the department received 75,520 applications in the first six months of this year.

There were 607,977 active concealed-weapons permits as of July 31. Active permits jumped more than 16,000 in a single month.

Marion Hammer, a former president of the National Rifle Association who has lobbied the Legislature on guns for decades, is not surprised by the jump.

Obama’s record as an Illinois legislator and U.S. senator was also alarming, Hammer said, along with the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and the congressional clout of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca.

“It really shouldn’t surprise anyone that the changes in the political landscape are driving a lot of these applicants,” said Hammer. “There are over 6 million gun owners in Florida, people who care about freedom, who care about the 2nd Amendment, who are concerned about their ability to protect themselves.

”State Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, who owns a Mount Dora gun store, is running to succeed Bronson in the Cabinet post. He said he’s seen an increase in women at the twice-monthly safety classes his store conducts for permit applicants and that having a concealed-weapon permit no longer raises eyebrows.

“The first thing driving the increase is just a general apprehension among citizens that they might lose their right to carry a gun, and they feel this is sort of a way of securing that right,” said Baker.

Bronson, a former state senator who served as a reserve deputy in the Brevard and Miami-Dade County sheriff offices, said gun owners might feel safer if they have permits before any federal gun legislation gets passed.

“The president has made statements when he was a state senator in Illinois about people carrying weapons, and taxing ammunition, that’s got people concerned,” he said. “If they feel that in Congress there’s an anti-gun, anti-carry mentality, people might feel if they get their licenses, they’re going to be covered or grandfathered in.”