Frightened by a spate of mass shootings and other seemingly random crimes and worried that new gun-control laws may make it all but impossible to obtain a firearm for self-defense or recreational use, many Americans are rushing to buy pistols, rifles and shotguns.
Firearms dealers, in informal interviews from coast to coast, reported a surge in sales in recent weeks, often to record levels.Some manufacturers said they are having trouble keeping up with demand from retailers and, as a result, prices for some guns are soaring.
Many purchasers said they had never contemplated owning a gun until the carnage left by recent mass shootings in places like New York, California and Colorado starkly focused their attention on the nation's crime problem.
They were finally moved to make a purchase, they say, upon learning that Congress had passed one gun-control law, the Brady bill, and that President Clinton was pushing for other laws.
"I wanted to be able to come and get it when I wanted to get it," Diana Skaggs, a secretary, said Thursday at Greer Gun and Pawn in Greer, S.C., as she paid $401 for two boxes of bullets and a 9-millimeter pistol, the first weapon she has ever owned.
Personal safety has become a major issue with Skaggs, and not just because of recent mass slayings and other criminal violence around the country.
A few nights ago, in her own neighborhood, she heard a man screaming out in the darkness for help.
Other gun buyers, mainly collectors and recreational shooters, say they are rushing to make a purchase because they fear new regulations being proposed may outlaw or sharply curtail sales of the particular kinds of firearms they want or because they anticipate such firearms will become a good investment.
"I collect guns and I'm trying to beat our the president before he makes it so I can't get one," Nathan Ellis, a heating and air-conditioning installer from Jacksonville, Ark., said while cradling a newly purchased assault rifle at Don's Weaponry in North Little Rock.
He described the purchase as "an investment," noting that the gun he had just bought for $269 had been selling for $179 several weeks earlier.
There are no comprehensive national figures on just how much guns sales have surged over the past few months. But a random sampling of gun dealers across the country produced numerous reports of month-to-month increases of 50, 60 and even 100 percent.
"Sales have skyrocketed," said John Kayson, manager of Rick's Gun & Sport in Lockport, Ill., a town 35 miles southwest of Chicago. "We have trouble getting guns from distributors."
Rick's Gun & Sport made 75 gun sales in September, 150 in October and 250 in November, Kayson said.
"Crime is obviously a factor," he said. "But people also are afraid of all this talk of regulation."
Kurt Rhoda, owner of the Hillsborough Shooting Center in Belle Meade, N.J., also reported a recent surge in gun sales, particularly sales of semi-automatic pistols and rifles, to customers fearful of crime and new firearms regulations.
"Any high-capacity guns that can be legally purchased are going at a frenzied rate," he said.
At the Alamo Gun Shop in Houston, sales are running about 50 percent ahead of the level recorded this time a year ago.
"We have a lot of first-time victims who were anti-gun, or not really pro-gun, who come in for protection," Judy Chmiel, the owner, said, adding that many purchasers tell her, "I'm going to buy it before they tell me I can't buy it."
At Don's Weapory in North Little Rock, Don Hill, the owner, reported that he had sold 75 guns this week compared with about 25 guns during the same week a year ago.
"Last month was the best for sales that I have experienced in the eight years I've been in business," Hill said. "Overall, business this year has been twice as good as last year. Honest citizens are buying my guns. Criminals are getting them off the streets. The Brady bill doesn't affect them at all. It only hurts the good guys."