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Posted on 10/08/2001 6:48:22 AM PDT by truthandlife

With gun shops enjoying a surge in sales since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, it begs the question by some - why the purchase of a gun would make anybody feel safer. The terrorists hijacked airliners and aimed them at buildings. Could anybody on the ground with a gun have made a difference?

Dave Workman, Senior Editor of Gun Week magazine has an explanation.

"Gun sales have gone up in several states, because there is a fear that the police, while they do as well as they can, are not going to be there when we need them," Workman said. "There are a lot of people who never have owned a firearm before that are making their first gun purchase.

"That tells you something, that when the issue comes down to basics, they are the ones responsible for their own safety," he said.

Among those states where gun sales have increased are Connecticut, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Sales in some of the eastern states surged by 50 percent in the days following Sept. 11, and out of 200 gun retailers nationwide polled by the National Sport Shooting Association, 36 percent reported increases in sales. Fifteen percent of the retailers said their sales zoomed 25 percent.

Larry Pratt, president of Gun Owners of America, agrees that the increased sale of firearms reflects a new attitude among Americans that they are vulnerable and must take responsibility for protecting themselves.

"No longer are Americans ready to assume that America will protect them," Pratt said. "I think the decision to take this back into their own hands is a very encouraging course of events -- hopefully we are seeing the beginning of the end of the culture of passivity."

Pratt admits there is little that an average person could do to stop a terrorist act, but that most gun owners are worried about the chaos that could ensue following such a catastrophe.

"I think it has occurred to them that while they unhappily would not have been able to protect themselves with a gun on a plane, that is not the only way a terrorist might attack," Pratt said. "If there were some kind of massive disruption of normal services that were brought out by an attack, there very well could be looters who decide that stealing from you would be better than being hungry.

"A lot people have decided they needed to be prepared to protect their families," he said.

However, Desmond Riley, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, says guns are giving Americans a false sense of security and America's "lax gun laws" are endangering the nation even more because they give terrorists easy access to weapons.

"We have been saying for a long time that it is too easy for people to get guns, and we have known of instances where terrorists have gotten guns and have taken advantage of our weak gun laws," Riley said. "The truth is that a terrorist can go into a gun show this weekend and at certain tables could buy guns, no questions asked."

"In that specific instance [of the Sept. 11 attacks], guns did not play a role, but I think the potential for terrorists arming themselves is huge in America," he said. "I don't think we should be wittingly or unwittingly allowing terrorists to arm themselves."

Riley said it is "not surprising" that gun sales have gone up. However, he said the recent surge of gun sales would not last long.

Riley's suggestion to those who feel threatened and want to buy a gun? Find some means of emotional healing.

"We understand people are scared, and people are trying to deal with their fears, but bringing a handgun into their home is making that home more dangerous," he said. "People would be a lot better off going and talking to a counselor, a minister, a priest or a rabbi, because what people are looking for is peace of mind and security, and you won't find that in a gun."

Dr. Carol Oyster, a University of Wisconsin psychology professor, explains the gun-buying frenzy as a sign that people have a new sense of how vulnerable they really are.

"I think that the whole thing on Sept. 11 profoundly shook people's sense of security," said Oyster, who studies the sociology of gun owners. "We have always had what was probably an illusion of safety, and now people are realizing that nobody is really safe.

"And because that is a frightening thing, they want to take a pro-active step to make themselves feel like they are more in control of their safety and one way to do it is to buy a firearm," she said.

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