MikeSpace

From the Des Moines Register:

Sales of guns and ammunition are booming in Iowa, fueled by worries of possible federal restrictions.

Many firearms dealers are reporting shortages.

At Jack Smith Gun Sales in Des Moines, ammunition is selling “as fast as we can unload the boxes,” said owner Jack Smith. He’s been getting 50 to 80 telephone calls daily from prospective buyers and occasionally has to take the phone off the hook to handle customers in the store.

Double-Barrel Shooters Supply in Missouri Valley in western Iowa has also been swamped with buyers, and its Web site has been generating “tremendous business” nationwide, store officials said.

Gabe’s Gun Shop in Williamsburg stockpiled firearms and ammunition in anticipation of strong sales and still has a good supply, said owner Mike Gabriel. But his store – about midway between Des Moines and Davenport – is drawing customers from more than 100 miles away seeking hard-to-get products, he said.

“I call it the Obama effect,” said Jody Windschitl, who owns Double-Barrel Shooters with her husband, Chris.

There is concern among gun owners that President Barack Obama and Congress will revive a ban on military-style weapons and impose other restrictions on gun owners.

A ban on military-style weapons expired in 2004 under President George W. Bush, but U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the Obama administration supports reinstating it. Holder said Mexican drug cartels have been obtaining weapons like the AK-47 rifle from U.S. gun stores, contributing to violence across the border.

Firearm sales have been soaring nationwide, both in response to Obama’s election and concerns about possible social unrest because of the economic recession, said Lawrence Keane, a spokesman for the firearms industry. He said people are concerned about their ability to purchase these products in an uncertain future.

“Supplies are very limited, both for ammunition and for most firearms. Many manufacturers have told us that their entire production for this year, and in some cases longer, is entirely spoken for,” said Keane, who is senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation in Newtown, Conn.

FBI data show that instant criminal background checks on firearms sales nationally rose by 23.3 percent in February compared with the same month a year earlier. The number rose by 29 percent in January, 24 percent in December and 42 percent in November, when a record 1.529 million background checks were performed. FBI background checks are required under federal law for all individuals purchasing firearms from federally licensed dealers and are a strong indicator of actual sales, Keane said.

There are no government statistics specifically on the volume of sales of firearms and ammunition in Iowa, said Jeff Fulton, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for Iowa, Nebraska and eastern Missouri.

Jim Johnson of Cedar Rapids, a retired mechanical engineer and acting director of Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence, said he “absolutely” supports additional restrictions on firearms. This would include a federal ban on military-style semiautomatic weapons and requiring background checks on all types of gun sales, not just those involving federally licensed firearms dealers, he said.

Johnson said that if there actually is a significant increase in Iowans arming themselves, “we think it sends the wrong message that more guns will make people safe. The answer to gun violence is not more guns.”

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonpartisan organization in Washington, D.C., contends the nation’s gun lobby created the huge demand for firearms sales while spending millions of dollars trying to defeat Obama in the presidential campaign.

Dangerous people who want to acquire dangerous weapons should be concerned about what the Obama administration may do to stop them, Helmke said.

“Anybody else, who wants a gun for sport, for hunting, for collecting or for personal protection and who doesn’t care about outfitting their own private army, they don’t need to worry,” Helmke said.