Posted on 11/06/2008 7:51:54 AM PST by rosenfan
GRAND JUNCTION — John Faulkner and his wife, Brenda, thought Wednesday was a good day to buy a handgun.
"I'm 37 years old, and this is the first time in my life that I am really scared for our future," said Faulkner, an oil field worker, as he perused the collection of weaponry in A Pawn Shop here.
At Aurora's Firing Line gun shop, Steve Wickham was also purchasing. "Anything I can get my hands on," he said as he cradled a $699 9mm handgun.
Same thing in Lakewood: "I was selling guns before I even opened the door," said George Horne, owner of The Gun Room. "It's gone completely mad. Everyone is buying everything I've got on the shelves. Sales have been crazy."
By midday Wednesday, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's "Insta- Check" background check — required for the sale of a firearm and typically about 8 minutes long — was jammed with waits lasting more than two hours.
Gun-shop owners and buyers said the urgency was fueled by Barack Obama's presidential win and Democrats' increasing their majority in Congress.
"I'm here because of Obama," Wickham said. "I think he's misinterpreted the Second Amendment. It's not about the right to hunt. It's about the right to defend yourself."
The Grand Junction pawnshop is decorated with bumper stickers: "Obama 08" with hammers and sickles on each end, "Obama for President of Afghanistan" and "Don't Be a Victim. Buy a Gun."
Potential threats outlined
Buyers, who were mostly going for assault rifles and handguns, were sighting them on the bumper stickers.
Behind the cash register, a list issued by the National Rifle Association outlines the potential threats a President Obama would have on Second Amendment gun rights: prohibitive excise taxes on guns and ammunition, bans on sales and transfers of all semiautomatic weapons, bans on right-to-carry permits and more.
One customer left with two new assault rifles and said he had already bought 30 weapons since Obama began his campaign for president.
"And look at this," he said, unwrapping a black rifle from a plastic cover. "I'm not talking BB guns."
Across Colorado, gun shops reported brisk business Wednesday as hunters and gun enthusiasts began to stockpile in anticipation of a Democratic president and Congress whittling away Second Amendment gun rights. The FBI is reporting that gun sales have increased 10 percent over purchases at this point last year.
Jerry Stehman told an endless wave of customers at his Jerry's Outdoor Sports store in Grand Junction to come back in two hours to pick up their firearm purchases. For the past 10 days, Stehman said, customers have been gathering cases of ammunition and multiple guns.
"We don't know where this character is coming from or what he's gonna do to us," Stehman said of Obama. "But I can tell you it's been good for business."
The crush of business shows no signs of subsiding.
"It will be extremely busy until Obama decides to do anything," said Richard Taylor, manager of Firing Line, which bills itself as Colorado's largest gun shop and has seen its stock of assault rifles dwindle from several dozen to a mere few in recent weeks. "And that's the real problem, the uncertainty of what he is going to do."
Obama, who reportedly has never fired a gun, has followed Democratic Party lines in his Senate and Illinois statehouse votes regarding gun control. He supported the controversial handgun ban in Washington, D.C., which the Supreme Court shot down earlier this year.
He has voted in favor of several gun-control measures and increasing taxes on ammunition and firearms.
"A deep-rooted hatred"
The 4 million-member NRA dedicated $15 million of its $40 million campaign this year to painting Obama as a threat to the Second Amendment. In a mass fundraising letter sent to members this summer, NRA president Wayne LaPierre wrote, "Never in NRA's history have we faced a presidential candidate — and hundreds of candidates running for other offices — with such a deep-rooted hatred of firearm freedoms."
Obama's campaign, in a statement labeled "Supporting the rights and traditions of sportsmen," said he "will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport and use guns."
Gun owners worry that a Democratic administration and Congress would support a return to President Clinton's gun ban, which lasted 10 years before sunsetting in 2004. That ban prohibited magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds and certain semiautomatic assault rifles with cosmetic features such as lugs for attaching a bayonet.
"Not only are they likely to revisit the Clinton ban, they will possibly make it more restrictive by banning more types of firearms altogether," said Tony Fabian, a Castle Rock attorney and president of the Colorado State Shooting Association, which is the state's division of the NRA.
Several gun-shop owners contacted by The Denver Post on Wednesday said sales had been exceptionally brisk in the past two months.
"The avid gun owners are picking up items that were part of earlier bans or things the Democrats typically talk about when they talk about gun control. Anything semiautomatic. Magazines for more than 30 (rounds). Assault-type guns," said Tim Brough, owner of Rocky Mountain Shooters Supply in Fort Collins. "I think it's a legitimate concern. Democrats typically want to pass more gun legislation, and now you've got a House, Senate and Democratic president, so it seems likely we will see more gun regulation."
The leftist morons in Boulder unleashed their ACORN upon the state. That, plus there really are a lot of politically dense people in the big cities here. They’ll see the light soon enough.
There’s a guy at work who said he WANTS guns banned. Yet he never seems to have an answer when I ask how they’re going to get gun wielding criminals to obey the laws banning guns while they’re assaulting his wife and kids.
I told him it’d be like the scene in The Terminator as the T-800 loads a shotgun shell into the weapon in the gun shop: “Hey, you can’t do that.”
“Wrong.” BLAM!!
He’s young, though. He’ll find out.
I hope others do as well.
I live in CO, last week, both of my adult children and their spouses went shopping
Springfield XD-45
Springfield XD-40
S&W 686
Me, I just bought ammo.
that many people voted for the phony and had a gun
what on earth are these people thinking
IDIOTS
another reason why voters have to answer 5 questions on the issues before being allowed to vote
course if that was law the Dems would never get into power again
If you are a decent person...not prone to being pulled over and searched....why would you apply for a CCL..?
Here's my point...
I am a middle-aged guy that's been pulled over I think twice in the last 20 yrs. In my whole life......I've NEVER been asked if I had a weapon. NEVER.
The last traffic stop, didn't even ask me for my license or insurance. Ha!!
If I don't go around showing my gun to people....NOBODY knows I have it. And best of all...the feds don't know either.
Just a thought....
What's troubling about 0bama is the fact he's on record as being against the possession, manufacturing, and sale of handguns (see his now infamous pre-election IL state senate questionnaire). He also wants to re-institute the ban on "assault weapons" and have restrictions on ammunition. Problem is, many weapons could be construed (in liberal terms) as "assault weapons" depending on their configuration, magazine capacity, etc.
Google S.2556 109th Congress. Take a close look at the REAL proposal in the Lugar-0bama senate bill. The Nunn-Lugar bill addressed WMDs in general, nuclear weapons, specifically. The Lugar-0bama bill had nothing to do with WMDs. They were after conventional weapons, specifically MANPADS, or portable missiles like the Grail and Stinger. It also mentions "other conventional weapons" in the text. Many liberals classify AK-47s in the Third World as WMDs due to their widespread use and availability. You can bet the control of small arms in the interest of "peace and public safety" is an aim of 0bama and the Left.
I forgot, in the same questionaire, 0bama is also against Concealed Carry, as well. While he says he’s a 2nd Amendment proponent (what a laugh), he cleverly added local municipalities can impose “sensible restrictions.” Look out for that over the coming months/years if/when the 0bamunists being to aquire local power in your area.
I'm sure quite a few people that own guns voted for Obama. Oh, did you mean legal guns? LOL
I'm simply full up. Even on bare serialized receivers that I'll probably never get around to using.
My armored gun safe is already bulging out on all sides like an overcooked JiffyPop® popcorn skillet. I'm afraid to open it up because I fear everything inside will avalanche out like Fibber McGee's closet.
I’ve lived here since 1984 and I think it’s been the mass influx of Californians that has made our once red state go blue; since they began arriving in droves in the 1990’s, things have gone downhill as far as friendliness, crime and cost of living (I live in El Paso County).
I bought a Glock 2 weeks ago and just purchased another 100 rounds. The ammo counter at Walmart was busy. I’d never seen two people working it and they said they had been swamped. I just wonder how the MSM will play this news...make a big deal of it to try to frighten the white-guilt Obama supporters, paving the way for a 2nd amendment overturn, or bury the story to keep the public from knowing just how dangerous this America-hating Marxist really is. It’ll be interesting to follow. In the meantime, I’ll be adding to an already well armed household.
Screw you Colorado. Live with your Messiah.
Having heard that there was a run on - and shortage of - ammunition, I dropped by a local gun shop yesterday to stock up a bit.
There was no shortage but a lot of customers. One guy said that if BO sends him a stimulus check he will use it to buy another Glock. Others were worried that BO would try to stop ammunition sales by raising the tax 500 percent.
I live in a very “red” area that went heavily for McCain-Palin, a lot of hunters here, and people here will defend the 2nd Amendment to the last Glock.
Even liberals want to flee the societies they make.
I see your point.
I lived in Leadville and Salida from 1983 to 2002. That’s exactly what happened. Nice state totally ruined.
Run on Guns After Obama Wins
VIDEO
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/business/Run_on_Guns_After_Obama_Wins_All__National_.html
I get so tired of posting this over and over, but here goes again...it’s your friggin state that went left, not Californians. Blame the people who’ve lived there for decades, who btw voted for Democrats even in the 80’s (Patsy Schroeder ring a bell?). If there are millions of liberals fleeing CA every election cycle, why is CA going ever more to the left and how is the population keep exploding here? The math just doesn’t fly. Oh, and btw CA was rock solid conservative in the 80s, are those the people that have supposedly left the state after voting for Reagan, Deukmajian and Wilson and somehow went Marxist crossing the CO state line?
Firing Line is where my husband got his handgun. He received his CCL at the end of October. He plans on getting a rifle sometime soon.
Hey—still a lot of good conservatives in the state—like me! :)
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