I was in hopes I would find one of these under my tree this year, but, alas, disappointed again.
Posted on 12/31/2005 8:50:14 AM PST by skyman
Gun sales shoot up on holidays
By Glen Warchol The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Tribune
Gun sales shoot up on holidays By Glen Warchol The Salt Lake Tribune
'Tis the season of peace, good will, to be jolly and, in the case of Utah gun shops, to sell 12,728 guns. And counting . . . Utah will break previous annual gun sales records for the year and for the holiday season, when firearm sales are traditionally hotter than, well - a Saturday night special.
Sales have been inching up nearly every year, reaching this year's record of nearly 72,000 rifles, shotguns, pistols and revolvers sold. That's 10 percent over 2004's 65,222. December sales - guns apparently make great gifts - are up 17 percent over the same period last year with two buying days remaining in the year. Gun purchase figures are based on background checks run on buyers by the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification. (Guns sold by private individuals do not require background checks.) "Sales have been going extremely well," said Sterling Morris, manager at Ogden's Impact Arms. "Over the past two, three weeks, we've been selling 20 or 30 a day."
Although Morris says most holiday firearms shoppers are "wives buying for husbands. We do see some first-time guns being bought for kids." Impact's hottest seller has been the Benelli Nova pump shotgun, sleek in black or camouflage at $300 and $350, respectively.
Joyce Carter, manager of the firearms section of BCI, says most guns sold are long guns, that is shotguns and rifles. About a third of sales are of handguns. She attributes part of this year's sales jump to the August opening of Cabela's sporting megastore in Lehi. Cabela's 150,000-square-foot
showroom includes animal displays, aquariums and dog kennels, thousands of firearms and accessories, and draws customers regionally. "But Cabela's doesn't account for all these sales," Carter says. "I think we have a lot of sportsmen out there and it's a good time of year to buy a new firearm," says Lenny Rees, Hunter Education coordinator for the Department of Wildlife Resources.
Utah's increase would fly in the face of a downward trend in hunting and gun-sport participation in recent years, which researchers attribute to the competition for young people's time of nongun outdoor sports, television and video games. "Utah's hunting license and permit sales are stable," Rees says.
"In 2004, we actually had a slight increase in youth hunting licenses." Impact has sold many novice shooters their first firearms in the last year, Morris says, "If shooting is on a decline, I'm not seeing it." --- The trend of increased gun sales in December was first identified by University of Utah journalism student Jay Rogers in statistical records he obtained from the state.
..so do Fruit Cakes
Doogle
Give the gift that keeps on giving........GUNS!!!!!
Memo to Muslims everywhere: We evidently are NOT France.
YaaaaaaHoooooooo!!!!!!
I was in hopes I would find one of these under my tree this year, but, alas, disappointed again.
Oh,honey....an M-60 for *me*? You're a sweetheart!
I know the feeling.
You'll shoot your EYE out!
The Cabela's in Hamburg Pennsylvania did good this year. I don't know the numbers but a slaesclerk I talked to yesterday said it was the first slow day of the season. Even a liberal teacher friend of mine got himself a gun.
I played my part, I just bought another AR15 M4 with a new EOTech sighting system, havent even fired it yet. My Christmas present to myself.
Some of my friends subscribe to the notion that "Love is a belt fed weapon.." I kinda like the bucket fed variety myself; but, to each his own ;)
It was a gun kind of Christmas at our house this year. Dad + 3 sons = 4 new guns. What a great Christmas.
And what about Christmas Trees? Their sales are REALLY up around Christmas. I think someone should do a study.
My parents gave me a .38 revolver for Christmas.
Took the kids in to a new doctor a couple days ago for their check-ups and you'll never believe what the doctor felt was an appropriate question - Do you have guns in the house... bad... locks... ammo... blah, blah, blah. What?!? In my hazy 101 temperature and the "good" cough syrup induced state, I failed to crawl inside her lab coat and rip out her heart thinking it best to finish what we came for and then change doctors. The kids (teens) also sat there with their jaws on the ground unable to reply as she ranted on. Several hours later, finally getting to the house and missing a dose of cough syrup, I came to enough to tell them, and LE Lt. M, next time to proudly announce they were tops on the rifle team and would the doctor like to go to the next competiton.
"She attributes part of this year's sales jump to the August opening of Cabela's sporting megastore in Lehi.
OH Yeah! Stopped by on our way back to CA from deer hunting in WY. All I can say is "DROOLDROOLDROOLDROOLDROOLDROOL.....!!!!!"
Robert Heinlein also said.. TANSTAAFL!
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