U.S. flags, guns sell briskly (Americans Taking Up Arms!, my title)

Gun and flag sales peaked across Central Florida as defiant, fearful residents rushed to arm themselves Tuesday and display their patriotism.

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.

"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."

"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

Our first order of business should be to expell all Muslims on visas of any kind from any Muslim country. Then we could review the citizens from said countries. There's just too many potential fifth columnests to look at each case. The Muslim religion calls for the extermination of other religions and their adherants. (Although it makes an exception for Christians and Jews who can remain alive by becoming 4th rate people and paying special taxes for the privilige of breathing air.) Believe me, the're out to get us.

I don't like that. I like that people are buying, but I sure hope these people have at least basic training.

I have been putting off becoming a gun owner.(living in NJ--planning to move to CO)Never shot anything besides a bb gun. I am going to go ahead and get a shotgun for home defense. I agree with you on the training. The way I see it, I have to budget for 1 shotgun and some ammo, NRA safety training for me and the wife, and money for the shooting range. I wouldn't think of having a gun around without getting at least basic training for me and the missus. Why am I stepping it up? I dunno. Fear, I guess.

"Our first order of business should be to expell all Muslims on visas of any kind from any Muslim country. Then we could review the citizens from said countries. There's just too many potential fifth columnests to look at each case. The Muslim religion calls for the extermination of other religions and their adherants. (Although it makes an exception for Christians and Jews who can remain alive by becoming 4th rate people and paying special taxes for the privilige of breathing air.) Believe me, the're out to get us.

I certainly believe you BnBIFlag.
But sadly no such policies are even remotely possible in Ted Kennedy's Americsa. (Islamics are equal rights to be here and blow up buildings build MOsques etc etc.) In fact, huge numbers of Islamics are being imported and "assimilated" as we speak, to supplant us and Christianity.

BTW WRT "special taxes" are you familiar with the "blood tax?"

And Huch, you're arming up?
We've crossed swords before and as I recall, you're stepping out of character- but if so, welcome aboard!

We may have crossed swords before, but if so, I doubt it was on RKBA grounds. I fully support the right, and have been looking forward to exercising it for some time. I was going to wait til I got out of Jersey, but I think I will move ahead. I am looking into how much it will cost. I want one shotgun for home protection, and one pistol. I have been told that an inexperienced shooter, who doesn't have much practice time, should choose a revolver. I am researching online. I understand Ruger makes some good pistols. I am looking at the GP100, for example. I am looking at Winchester shotguns. The Model 1300 defender. NRA instructors around here charge around $100/hr. So I am looking at about a $1200-1500 investment to get a shotgun and a pistol, plus training, for me and the wife. I'm going to start the permit process moving,which can take 30 days, and continue to do some online research, including on the many gun buyer threads here. I have freeper contacts who can advise where needed.

Sounds good to me. But the 100$ an hour seems a little rich. If you have any friends who are gun-owners or hunters, they would probably be willing to check you out on pistols and shotguns/ basic gun safety etc gratis. If not consider joining a gun club/range. They should have group classes you can take for far less.

Unfortunately when the s**t hits the fan; if through a bad mis coculation and they take me alive. I will be tried as a adult. As to your other point they are not here just me and some of my closest friends. As for the church I quit preaching along time ago; every one thought the tv had all the true answers. {BE WELL IN YOUR QUEST!}

Here in Greenwich, Connecticut, I walked down the main street (Greenwich Avenue). EVERY single open business had an American flag in the window, except Starbucks and a restaurant (Bleu, but it has a large window in the front that lifts up like a garage door, so there is really no front window, just an open space). Most of the stores had a paper flag from the newspaper taped up in the window, but a few businesses had large cloth flags. The newspaper shop that sells newspapers, magazines and lotto tickets had a whole bunch of flags, as the owner of the store is Middle Eastern and presumably wants to make it clear that he didn't support the attacks...

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