Nothing but bolt actions and shotguns...
Posted on 11/16/2008 11:22:19 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
LAKELAND | In an economy where homes sit vacant and unsold cars clutter lots, it's hard to find any winners.
That is until you check in with the local gun shop.
A slumping economy, a Democratic president-elect and several attention-grabbing local crimes have combined to create a banner month — and even year — at a handful of Polk's gun shops.
'The phone's (ringing) off the hook. I have five people at the counter. I'm seeing people come in and buy cases at a time — that's 1,000 rounds of ammunition. I see people come in and dump $3,500 on stuff,' said Jeff Riggeal, manager of Hartmans Guns & Ammo, 226 W. Central Ave., Winter Haven, who estimated his business this year has tripled.
While Riggeal bases his estimate in part on anecdotes — phone calls, customers at the counter and a bigger than usual stack of forms representing buyers waiting to pick up their guns — more concrete evidence exists.
Between July 1 and Oct. 31, Polk County sent 685 new concealed-weapon applications to the state licensing division within the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
That's a 32 percent increase over the same time period in 2007, when there were 520 applications.
Statewide for the same three-month period in 2007, 22,361 new applications were received.
In 2008, that number had jumped 28 percent to 28,509.
The licensing division has requested up to 25 additional staff members to handle the increased number of applications it has received in recent years, said Terence McElroy, spokesman for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Riggeal attributes the 2008 increase in sales to a number of factors.
For one, Riggeal said, a pair of rapes in Winter Haven earlier this year put residents on alert and convinced some they should be armed to remain safe.
In Lakeland, Alex Wold, manager of The Gunshed, 1704 E. Edgewood Drive, said the December 2007 killings of two Lake Alfred convenience store workers and two Lake Wales insurance company employees, along with the shooting of a man who tried to help the insurance employees, also triggered gun sales at the start of 2008.
'People are coming to realize that their own personal safety depends on them,' Wold said. 'Any time this issue gets brought to the public's mind, it gets them thinking about their responsibility for personal safety.'
In addition to local crimes, Riggeal said, the economy has had an impact on sales.
When the economy slumps, he said, people become more worried about crime and, therefore, more worried about protecting themselves and their property.
So in an economy where the year — both locally and nationally — will be remembered for its layoffs, foreclosures and bank failures, it's only natural that personal protection has become a top priority for some.
While some violent crimes locally and a pervasively struggling economy have contributed to a good year at his shop, Riggeal said, a more recent spark in sales resulted from the election of Barack Obama as the next president and an increase in Democratic Party power in other areas of the government.
'Any time you have a Democrat that's going to be president or a Democratic Congress, people are always afraid they're going to take away guns and ammunition or put taxes on guns and ammunition so it's not affordable,' Riggeal said.
While these factors — crime, politics, sagging economy — may seem unrelated, Larry Hazelbaker, chairman of the behavioral and social sciences department and a professor of psychology at Southeastern University in Lakeland, said they are all related to change, and change is what causes fear and subsequent reactions.
Since the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 — if not even before — Hazelbaker said, Americans have unconsciously been on guard and waiting for the next 'hammer to fall.'
Changes, such as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; a struggling economy; or the election of a new president can cause that 'on-guardship' to take over and, in this case, translate into buying guns.
'Whenever we have change and all the variables associated with it, people become more isolated and move toward dependability,' he said. 'We see people gravitating more toward their families, and there's a sense of ‘let's watch out for each other.''
Additionally, conjecture and speculation are powerful forces in our society, Hazelbaker said, and both have run rampant in relation to the election.
'People tend to imagine the worst-case scenario. Because (President-elect Obama) is so new, nobody really knows exactly what he's doing. There are sound bites that pop up and serve as seeds to grow all this imagination. We write novels in our brain based on perspectives and react as if they were true,' he said.
Hazelbaker pointed to a headline he recently saw on a Web site that said Obama will raise taxes on ammunition by 500 percent.
'That's speculation, but it promotes and produces fear that this will happen, so people go stock up on ammunition,' he said.
'People imagine what the second phase will be — that they will only be able to buy two bullets.'
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[ Rachel Pleasant Chambliss can be reached at 863-802-7533 or rachel.pleasant@theledger.com. ]
They look like shotguns and hunting rifles to me, but what do I know -- I'm not a journalist.
Like in the West during the late 1800’s ... a bullet bought an ounce of whiskey ... hence the term “shot glass” ... so maybe now three bullets will buy a loaf of bread????
I’m a big history buff, and I didn’t know that one!
I was home schooled by five men and one woman ... my relatives ...and they sure knew their history, plus!!!
There is so much frontier lore I was taught and actually had to experience as part of my home schooling ... camping, survival training hiking (actually backpacking - being dropped off an area and having to hike through brush and stuff to get to the pickup point) - and I’m only 5’5 and weigh 110 ....
OMFG. Somebody needs to call that “news” paper on that absurd subtitle. Those plinkers and squirrel guns are colored black so they are obviously paramilitary weapons, don’t you know? And those camo stocks? Sheeshh, well you know who loves camo... those bitter rural types too dumb to live in rat-infested, polluted cities, don’t you know?
My husband and I were eating at a local pub and this man (black like me) comes over and sits down and starts trying to make eye contact (I’m thinking...”here we go”) He sits behind my husband. I scoot so I can look in my husband’s face and block this dude out because I know something is coming. The stranger dips his head to try to get my attention while I try to ignore his rudeness. Finally, he says he just got out of jail and needs some help. My husband says we don’t have any cash with us. He gets up and walks away. We speak to the waitress and she says he’s been up at the bar drinking beer. And I think to myself. I don’t own a gun but I definitely need a gun to protect myself from weirdos. When we walked out to our care (in the dark) we hear someone calling and I tell my husband, “keep it movin’ baby”.
Well I’m not a journalist either ... I guess it is the color black and the camo that make a weapon “Paramilitary-Style”. I wonder if they were all white if it would change their description? Is that racist of me?
I’m not a journalist either, but I know a sharpened assault stick when I see one! How about a full auto sharpened stick?
Nothing but bolt actions and shotguns...
My understanding was it was for the glass set on the table to spit the shot from birds when consumed.
Seems like a bowl would be more appropriate ... wider opening ...
The most popular origin story is that the shot glass originated in the Western saloons of the Old West. The story explains that the cowboys of the old west would trade a cartridge (bullet plus powder and primer encased in brass) for a small amount of alcohol. One problem with this story is that, even if true, your average old west saloon would not be able to “commission” the creation of a new style of glass to fill this purpose but– they had a glass to measure an ounce of whiskey, yet even today many bars do not stock shot glasses; they serve shots in ordinary whiskey glasses. Another problem with this origin story is the economics of such a trade are such that it would never happen. Alcohol sold for much more than a single cartridge, however some cartridges held more powder or lead as in the difference between a pistol and a rifle, but then again, some rifles used pistol cartridges as in the 45 long Colt.
Another origin story is that a “shot glass” was a glass used at the dinner table to place any “shot” left in your meat that you would find during a meal. However, people were shooting their food with shotguns for hundreds of years before the shot glass was born.
There may have been a “shot glass” for this purpose, but the shot glass did not come from it.
So bottom line - I like the romanticized western cowboy version better.
/r/Jane
"The sign outside a local store, The Gunshed, last week read, 'Proudly Clinging to Guns and Religion.'"
lol...a local media talking head was reporting on a shooting once and said, “The suspect used a high-powered shotgun style rifle.” I have no idea what that is, but I want one!
I certainly hope Obammy and his Mammy are reading all these reports. Perhaps they’ll think twice before sending their clone army of nitwits after us.
Was it a military over/under, perhaps? LOL Oh, I know, maybe it was an M-203/M-16 combo!!
They're in camo finish -- thus they look scary and therefore they must be paramilitary weapons.
Sales are up because a communist stole the election and will probably be President in January.
That makes more sense. First -no, second thing I thought, “whiskey price must have been more than a bullet’s value.” First thought was: “cute story!”
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