Headline: Gun sales soaring

The Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting that, with former Joyce Foundation board member Barack Obama less than a week away from becoming the nation's 44th president, and Democrats gaining control in Congress, Ohio gun stores are seeing a steep spike in sales.

From the story:

Outside Shooter's Supply in Loveland, six men line up on a Wednesday morning waiting impatiently for Marvin Mann to open the small shop at 10 a.m. so they can stock up on guns and ammunition.

Less than 10 miles away, a frustrated Mike Sargeant laments how he can't find any .223-caliber rifle rounds for his customers at Country Attic Treasures General Store in South Lebanon. His distributor is out. Orders for AR-15 assault rifles are running six months behind.

In Northern Kentucky, Alex Logsdon is seeing a rush of first-timers looking to buy a pistol at Shooter's Supply & Sporting Goods in Independence.

"They come in looking like country-clubbers or people who have never considered owning a gun," Logsdon says. "They almost look like, 'I can't believe I’m in here. But I’m buying a gun because of the past election.'"

Shop owners told the newspaper that fears that the new Congress and the new administration will join forces to push gun control - specifically a ban on assault rifles, restrictions on the number of rounds allowed in magazines, and sharply higher taxes on bullets - are motivating Americans to snatch up pistols, AK-47s, AR-15s and cases of ammunition while they can.

The local rush reflects a national phenomenon that started in November.

The barometer – a national system of background checks involving gun sales – shows a 41 percent increase in November over the same month a year ago. Even with the recession in force, December numbers also were up 23 percent compared to 2007, according to the FBI data.

According to the story, background checks for Ohio gun sales climbed 7 percent in 2008 over last year, and Kentucky saw an 18 percent surge.

Again, from the story:

Obama hinted that assault rifles were on their way out during his Aug. 29 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

"The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals," he said.

Obama has since defined his intentions even further. According to his official Web site, Obama.com, he and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden favor, among other gun measures, a permanent assault weapons ban because "such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets."

While assault rifles are in heavy demand at local shops, handguns are selling even faster, shop owners say.

"The problem we encounter right now is trying to replenish our inventory. The manufacturers just cannot keep up with the demand," Mann says.

Sargeant says his sales are up at least 25 percent. He's selling a lot of “high-end” pistols costing $1,000 or more.

Some customers order assault rifles that will set them back about $2,200 for a custom gun.

"If I could have got more AR-15s, I could have sold everything I could get my hands on," he says.

The article goes on to say that the gun show business is booming too.

Late last month, customers waited 90 minutes in the wind, rain and near-freezing temperatures to get into the Bill Goodman Gun and Knife Show at the Sharonville Convention Center. The line snaked down a stairway from the second floor, out the building and around to a back parking lot.

"The last of the line got in at ten 'til four, and we closed at five," said Mann, who had a booth at the show. "The gun of choice for the most part was a lot of AK-47-style and AR-15 rifles. Those guns went by noon. Everybody was out. Case lots of ammunition – 1,000-round cases – were gone by noon. It has been that way ever since (November)."

David Goodman, who manages the shows for his father, isn’t sure the attendance is record-breaking.

"But it's pretty damn good. They are worried that Obama is going to restrict their rights to buy ammo and assault weapons and hand guns and the right to defend themselves," he says.

Goodman has concerns of his own about the Obama administration – especially when it comes to the "gun show loophole," a measure that would require federal background checks on sales between private owners.

Anti-gun advocates say such checks would clamp down on the number of guns in the hands of criminals, even though Goodman says private owners make up only about 5 percent of his vendors and many of them are selling their personal collections.

The other gun vendors are federally-licensed dealers who already are required to conduct federal background checks.

New regulations, if passed, could make Goodman criminally liable for improper sales at gun shows.

"If the ATF can't police it, how am I going to?" Goodman says.