By Virginie Montet | Agence France-Presse
SALES of guns in the US are on the rise as gun enthusiasts fear president-elect Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress will impose new restrictions on firearms.
In October, as Senator Obama appeared headed for victory, sales of guns jumped 15 per cent, with about 150,000 long guns sold for a total of 1.18 million firearms purchased, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which checks police records of gun buyers.
Although more recent figures are not yet available, the spike in sales of rifles, handguns and semi-automatics began in the spring and surged in October.
“Certainly the election has something to do with it, certainly in October it did. As it got closer and closer and it looked more and more like an Obama victory, the sales went skyrocketing in late October,” said Tony Aeschliman, spokesman for the National Shooting Sport Foundation.
In gun shops across the country, sales were brisk.
“They are afraid of gun control. The Second Amendment says legally by law we can have firearms. He’s going to attempt to take that right away from us,” said Jimmy, owner of the Republic Arms gun shop in Houston, Texas, referring to the president-elect.
At the Continental Arms gun shop in Baltimore, Maryland, the owner said it was clear Senator Obama’s electoral triumph was driving gun sales even if customers were not saying so openly.
“People are not really saying something, but I’m sure it does have something to do with Obama’s election, because he’s very anti-guns,” said Jay, whose store has had a sales increase in recent weeks.
During the election campaign, Senator Obama said he respected rights associated with the Second Amendment of the US Constitution – which gun advocates say allows them to own a firearm – but as a state politician in Illinois, he voted for several measures restricting sales of certain categories of firearms.
“The philosophy behind this is that people are legitimately concerned that under the Obama administration with a majority of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, there will be an attempt to ban certain types of firearms,” including semi-automatic rifles, said Dave Workman, senior editor of Gun Week.
The last election of a Democratic president in 1992 sparked a similar gun-buying spree, said Mr Aeschliman.
“That same phenomenon had happened when (Bill) Clinton was first elected. There was a lot of panic buying because he was not perceived to be favourable to guns,” he said.
A rise in unemployment – the jobless rate hit 6.5 per cent, the highest in 14 years – could also help explain the surge in sales.
“One thing we do know is when unemployment starts to climb, hunters tend to hunt more. They have time on their hands and they can put meat in the freezer. That’s definitely a factor,” Mr Aeschliman said.