Friday, December 31, 1999
Gun sales surge for Y2K
Dealers, government report hike
BY KEVIN ALDRIDGE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Gun dealers like Joe Blanco at Target World in Sharonville have seen a huge increase in gun and ammo sales this month.
“Y2K has a lot to do with it,” Mr. Blanco said Thursday. “A lot of people are coming in buying guns and ammunition to make sure their homes and families are protected just in case something does happen on New Year's Eve.”
The possibility of computer glitches that could knock out power has some folks con cerned their home security systems also might fail. Mr. Blanco said the concern has produced a flood of customers in his store over the past week. .
“The rush might be even greater than when the Brady law (requiring background checks for gun purchasers) was passed,” Mr. Blanco said. “(Wednesday) we sold three times what we would on an average day.
“We are seeing a lot of last-second buyers who maybe thought about buying a gun a while back, but didn't,” he said. “Now, they are realizing time is running out before the new year, so they are all coming in at once.”
Marvin Mann, co-owner of Shooter's Supply Shop Inc. in Loveland, said his store has seen a 30 percent jump in sales in the past two months. Mr. Mann said November and December are typically good months for business because of the winter hunting season and Christmas, but this year sales are “exceptionally good.”
“This week alone I would say we sold 50 to 75 guns,” he said, noting the difficulty of keeping certain guns in stock. “I'm missing quite a few guns that I would normally have in stock right now, because the demand recently has been so high.”
FBI checks increase
The FBI has reported it has been swamped with requests for background checks that are required for handgun purchases. More than 1 million background checks were con ducted nationwide for prospective gun buyers during each of the past two months, according to FBI officials.
The federal Brady law replaces the voluntary checks on handgun buyers conducted by state and local police and sheriffs that had been in place since 1993.
Federal law bans gun purchases by people convicted or under indictment on felony charges; fugitives; the mentally ill; those with dishonorable military discharges; those who have renounced U.S. citizenship; illegal aliens; illegal drug users; and those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors or under domestic violence restraining orders. State laws add other categories.
The Brady law gives authorities up to three days to conduct background checks.
“We expect a December spike based on Christmas sales,” said Daniel Wells, acting operations manager for the FBI's background check system based in Clarksburg, W.Va. “It's a bit larger than we expected.”
Federal officials conducted 162,595 background checks during the third week of December this year, compared with 129,558 during the same week a year ago. Mr. Wells said that increase could be attributed to Y2K scares or the fact that more people have money to spend.
No "mad rush' here
While many Tristate gun dealers are reporting large spikes in sales, others say they are doing business as usual.
“Things always pick up this time of year,” said Peter Garrett, owner of Peter Garrett Gunsmiths Inc. in Newport. “We've had good business, but I haven't seen the mad rush that everybody's talking about.”
Mr. Garrett said he thinks the whole Y2K phenomenon is more media hype than anything else. But he did acknowledge one of his biggest sales of the year came as a result of Y2K hysteria.
“My biggest sale was to an executive of a software company, who wasn't sure what was going to happen with Y2K,” Mr. Garrett said. “He said he wanted to be prepared, so he bought four guns.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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