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.
the lunch aint free.....but I buy my ammo in bulk and real cheap.......
Ours too. My hubby bought me a new Taurus .357 Magnum. We bought our 10-year old granddaughter a new .410 GA shotgun and our daughter a new stainless steel toolbox. I bought my hubby a gun safe for the long guns and we bought the almost son-in-law an ammo box. We had a great redneck Christmas.
Wow,that's a lot of firepower.You folks are almost as well armed as Rosie O'Donnell's bodyguards!
My darling children, 17 and 11, bought me ammunition for Christmas. Isn't that sweet? (But you know kids: I think that secretly they want to help me us it.)
We really needed that gun safe for all the long guns. They were in racks all over the house and we were worried about somebody breaking in and stealing them, when we're not here of course. :-) I keep one of my handguns in my truck and the other one on the night stand. With the Ruger 9mm on his side of the bed and the .357 Magnum on my side, I feel pretty safe. :-)
You don't want to break into a house in Tennessee while the occupants are home!
I got a new Remington 700 in .204 from my sister and brother in law. I appreciate the thought but this caliber is so tiny (32 gr bullet) that you'd have to hit a squirrel with at least three shots to bring it down.
didn't buy a thing this year, BUT... the Rochester gun show is next weekend, maybe i'll get a good start on next year. 8^)
It asks the person to read and sign the document, and to place a signed copy in your chart or medical record. It asks the doctor/educator to affirm that he is certified to off er qualified advice about firearms safety in the home and then asks for the names of courses of study and the institutions they were from, and when they completed their studies.
There's a lot more, but the gist of it is that should they give advice and their patient follows it and something bad happens, they will be held liable.
I will send a copy to anyone who is interested, and freepmails me.
Please send.
Go try it out. I don't know who will be more surprised, you or the squirrel.
It'll turn a coy-dogs skull to mush at 100yds.
Just as long as the guns don't.
Apparently my friends didn't get the memo.
One of my customers and neighbors has one of these in 45.70 with the really nice Montana Antique Arms sights ($600 just for those!). Looking down the sights is like lookign back through history. An absolute joy to shoot.
Mr. Eleven is still trying to earn the right even to have an air gun, as his level of emotional control and responsibility is not there yet. I'm thinking maybe next Christmas. I'm looking into the legality of buying a handgun for my daughter when she turns 18. I know that right now she can't even buy handgun ammunition in MD and could only buy me ammo for the long guns for Christmas. I'm sure that law is highly effective in preventing kids from getting into gang wars and shooting each other. < /s>
When asked that question some years ago, I told one of the docs at our pediatrician practice that I considered that at least a borderline boundary violation, if not just well over the line entirely.
I then asked if he considered himself a safety expert competent to give advice on the subject of general household safety, and firearms safety in particular. I followed that by asking why they didn't ask a similar question about ownership of a swimming pool, since there are more accidental deaths of children due to drownings, than due to firearms.
I heard no more about the question.
Boundary Violation: Gun Politics in the Doctor’s Office
http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/2nd_Amend/boundary_violation.htm
Same here - I gave myself a SIG Sauer P-239 in .40 S&W. Just fired it for the first time on Tuesday - very nice.
Santa brought me a sweet Armalite M15A2. She's a smooth shooting weapon.
Apparently you have crappy friends.
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