AS ARMAS NA MÃO DO POVO PROMOVE DEMOCRACIA

07 November 2008
Gun sales soar following Obama election
Gun stores across the United States are reporting a massive surge in sales as buyers rush to stockpile firearms in case of a ban under soon-to-be President Obama.

Inquiries by the New York Times found gun shops in several states reporting sales several times higher than normal, with owners reporting widespread fears that an Obama administration

“He’s a gun-snatcher,” Jim Pruett, owner of Jim Pruett’s Guns and Ammo in northwest Houston, told the newspaper. “He wants to take our guns from us and create a socialist society policed by his own police force,” added Mr Pruett, a former radio personality.

The store owner said that sales last Saturday, just ahead of the election, were about seven times higher than a usual good Saturday.

Meanwhile David Nelson, a co-owner of Montana Ordnance & Supply in Missoula, Montana, reported sales about 30 per cent higher overall since Mr Obama declared his candidacy almost two years ago. He said his buyers were “awake and aware and see a dangerous trend.”

“People are concerned about overreaching legislation from Washington,” he said. “They are educating themselves on the Internet.”

Figures from federal authorities reflect a similar surge around the election.

In Colorado last Saturday, the number of background check requests for would-be gun buyers was the highest ever recorded in one day, according to figures from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

“We’re not really sure who is promoting the concept that a change in federal administrations might affect firearms possession rights,” an agency spokesman, Lance Clem, said, “but we do know that it’s increased business considerably.”

In some high gun ownership areas, Democrats have been distributing fliers assuring residents that Mr Obama supports the rights of individuals to own firearms.

The president-elect repeated that assurance on the campaign trail yet it is not so much this that has stuck in the conservative consciousness as his much reported remark that "bitter" small town Americans "cling to guns and religion".