Posted on 09/12/2001 6:55:28 AM PDT by chuknospam
Gun and flag sales peaked across Central Florida as defiant, fearful residents rushed to arm themselves Tuesday and display their patriotism.
Many were first-time buyers, some not even knowing how to load their weapons.
By 4 p.m., Buck's Gun Rack in Daytona Beach had sold 9,000 bullets -- at least 400 percent above an average day -- and more than 10 rifles and shotguns.
"It's like a hurricane. You may have four cans of tunafish at home, and you still go out and buy more," said Forrest Buckwald, co-owner of the store.
"Today, everybody bought."
The same sense of urgency spurred sales at M&M Flags and Banners in Longwood.
"By Friday there won't be no flags left in the country," said owner James Knapton, who ordered $20,000 of U.S. flags by late afternoon. "When this stuff happens, they just sell, bare out to the walls."
Still, ammunition outsold the Stars and Stripes.
"It's a concentrated Y2K situation that started since we opened up this morning," said Khaled Akkawe, who sold more than 100 assault rifles and shotguns through his two Shoot Straight gun stores in Apopka and Casselberry.
Most sales reported across the region involved rifles and shotguns, which don't require a three-day waiting period. But the state's three-day wait for handguns didn't appear to deter anyone.
"To me, it seems rather fruitless that they're buying them. But, still, I think it's the frustration people feel," said owner Chuck Love, a former Marine and owner of Love's Gun & Pawn in DeLand.
"They want to do something, so that's what they're doing -- they're buying guns."
Gun dealers said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported a big surge Tuesday in requests for mandatory criminal-background checks for potential gun buyers. FDLE workers would not comment.
At Shoot Straight in Casselberry, Liam Cuddy, 36, of Chuluota bought a $300, 12-gauge shotgun, one of 35 sold by midafternoon.
He grew up around terrorism in Dublin, Ireland, but he never considered owning a gun until he watched the World Trade Center topple.
"I didn't have a gun in the house until today," said Cuddy, who lives on five acres with his wife and 8-year-old child. "This has really shocked me."
At the opposite end of the counter, Syed Hassab Qadri, 23, a day trader who lives in Maitland, was buying a handgun.
His colleagues working at a branch office of Momentum Securities on the 83rd floor of the World Trade Center almost certainly died in the attack. And fear about an anti-Islamic backlash in Central Florida prompted law enforcement to provide security for his mosque and its religious leaders, he said.
"I had been planning for a couple of weeks to get a gun," Qadri said. "But because of today's events, I decided not to wait."
In Kissimmee, the walls of Gun Land were all but stripped bare. Up to 40 people crammed into the tiny gun shop on Orange Blossom Trail.
It was the busiest day ever for a business specializing in assault rifles and handguns.
By late afternoon, Gun Land's supplier announced its warehouse was empty. There were no more guns for sale, said Ben Woodall, 51.
The run started with the first TV broadcasts of the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
"Anytime something like this happens, this happens," said Ted Bickish, manager of Rieg's Gun Shop & Shooting Range in Orlando. "It's people panicking."
The pace was much slower in Mount Dora, where the A.W. Peterson Gun Shop has been in business since 1957.
"I wouldn't say we've had a panic -- fear of invaders hitting the shores," said co-owner Steuart Baker, who sold only one deer rifle all day.
At shop after shop, dealers said their customers were somber throughout the day.
"Nobody's freaking out," Buckwald said in Daytona Beach while selling 500 rounds of ammunition. "It's more a 'What if everything breaks down?' "
Denise-Marie Balona, Anthony Colarossi and Willoughby Mariano contributed to this report. Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5411. Doris Bloodsworth can be reached at 407-420-5411 or dbloodsworth@olandosentinel.com. Copyright © 2001, Orlando Sentinel
Freedom and the blessings of God to follow!!
Who are you arguing with?
This "debate" is a entrance into insanity. (not you personally MI).
We are funding, importing, "assimilating", exactly these Islamists who are supplanting our Christian culture at home and abroad. (TexRED is a cheerleader for this).
Blowing up some of our favorite buildings and killing 10,000 Americans (this time) is just an added bonus; the fruits of "diversity."
Who are you arguing with MI?
PS we obviously shouldn't be "funding" anybody (especially our sworn enemies). Nor bombing anyone either.
Good thing we all repudiate the advice of George Washington huh?
Yep...just got my shotgun last week and picked up a case of shells on Tuesday...
This is in reply to your comments on my memory, or impugned lack thereof, my politics, and my alleged purchasing decisions. Being 11:00pm at the time I made that purchase, there were precious few of your beloved "anti-communist" gun stores open for business, and yes, I usually do use my local independent gun dealer for day to day supplies. In fact, my gun dealer and my son even share the same, somewhat uncommon, given name.
I believe in the posting directions it says "NO personal attacks" and I shall comply. Therefore, to put this issue to rest I shall let others speak in my stead, as they have said it far better than I would presume:
"I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book [or, in this case, gun cleaning supplies] can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too."
- Thomas Jefferson
"I have no intention of passing my remaining years in explaining or withdrawing anything I have said [or done] in the past, still less in apologizing for it." - Winston Churchill
Sir, I'll respect and honor your views, as we all should in Liberty, and I'll thank you to respect my views and those of my wife as well.
- In The Defense Of Liberty
Anyway, pointless to argue here of course.
Time will tell.
"I agree that our government has our nose where it doesn’t belong. And has caused much suffering to people of other nations."
Agreed.
Especially Iraq, which country we continue to bomb to this day, for reasons which appear Hitlerian.
Funny how no pundit, no empty-headed Anchor"man", has even given the mere hint that perhaps bin Laden is retaliating for ten years of USA killing his Islamic brothers in Iraq.
I wonder what all of our righteous war-loving posters would do if someone bombed your closest friends for ten years, (like we are?)
"The United States has also come to the aid of most of the countries in the world when they have been in need. Something that doesn’t seem to have been reciprocated.
Sometimes "help" is as you define it.
But as far as USA, the French did help us once big-time, at the expense of ~English wrath~.
Seeing as how we haven't nuked anyone in some 56 years,
but that we do regularly bomb, invade, "capture the king", and spray chemical defoliates on people and countries the world over, I'm not entirely sure where you stand?
Is it with George Washington, who told us to avoid entangling alliances?
Are you ridiculing me sir, or agreeing with me?
"If up to me there will be no them; if they are sooo brave come to my house; i have something for them.Free passes straight to HELL!
FYI: they are already in your "house", and mine.
And thier churches are going up,
while our churches are coming down. (or becoming funeral homes)
Which is a parable for the fate of our religion, our culture, and our race.
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