Local gun sales boom under Obama

It seems happiness is a warm gun for some, as Sherwood’s Tri-County Gun Club membership grows dramatically with some citing new presidential administration as a cause

By Nick Peterson And Stover E. Harger Iii

The Forest Grove News-Times, Oct 14, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

‘Common sense enforcement’

Obama has said in the past that he supports “common-sense enforcement” for guns, while believing that the Second Amendment – the right to bear arms – should be respected.

“We essentially have two realities, when it comes to guns, in this country. You’ve got the tradition of lawful gun ownership …. And then you’ve got the reality of 34 Chicago public school students who get shot down on the streets of Chicago,” said Obama, according to an MSNBC transcript of the Jan. 15, 2008, Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas.

“We can reconcile those two realities by making sure the Second Amendment is respected and that people are able to lawfully own guns, but that we also start cracking down on the kinds of abuses of firearms that we see on the streets.”

‘A pack of lies’

Some don’t think Obama is spending enough – or any – attention on strengthening gun laws.

Peter Hamm, communications director for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said that people who are worried about their guns being taken away should pay attention to facts, not opinionated rhetoric.

The Obama administration is, unfortunately, avoiding discussing gun laws “like the plague,” he said.

“I think that people who believe that there is some threat to their gun rights are either paranoid or they’ve just fallen for a pack of lies that have been said to them by the National Rifle Association and other groups,” Hamm said.

Conservative estimates put the number of guns in this country at over 200 million, Hamm said, but it could be as many as 400 million.

The fact that more and more guns are being sold doesn’t necessarily mean that gun violence will increase in the short term, he said, but more guns in the country does mean that there is more potential for them to get into the wrong hands.

“I think that anybody that thinks they need to stockpile weapons right now is making a bizarre choice,” he said. “But I’m not going to call them names or criticize them. I don’t think that they are necessarily irrational, although some of them are. Some of them have just been brutally lied to for many, many years.”

Holster sales up

Ted Blocker Holsters, a Tigard company that produces hand-made holsters, has had a tough time keeping up with the flood of orders for their concealment holsters. A normal day might see three orders come in, but lately the shop has been seeing days with almost four times as many orders.

This isn’t the first time that Shelley Brown, who owns the shop along with her husband Don, has seen sales so strong.

“We saw it go up once before when Bill Clinton was elected,” she said.

She appreciates the business, but wishes that more solid facts were out there for people to rationally look at the current situation. Blame “the darn Internet” for that, she said.

“There’s a lot of things pushing buttons – fear buttons,” Brown said.

Nearly half her customers have not only spoken of a concern over the Obama administration’s stance on guns, but also express an “over-my-dead-body attitude,” Brown said.

“At my age now, if they want me to hand over my guns, go ahead and arrest me,” she said. “I think there will be a lot of people that say, ‘I don’t think so.’”

<< Prev. Page 1 | 2