Gun Sales Firing Fast

Prices Rise After Sandy Hook Shooting

The first challenge to buying a gun in Northwest Arkansas recently has been simply finding a place to park.

Hundreds of cars swamped the lot at the Northwest Arkansas Convention Center in Springdale on Saturday, and lines to get inside meant a wait of 15 minutes or more all morning. Earlier in the week, the parking lots at Ozark Armory, a Springdale gun shop, stayed full each day the shop was open.

“We actually had to close down for two days just to restock. That’s never happened before,” said Mike Nease, a sales clerk at Ozark Armory. “Sales, particularly of semi-auto rifles, tend to wax and wane with politics, with hot button issues, but we just can’t keep up. This is three or four times what we saw after the election in 2008.”

The deaths last month of 27 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., have not led to any major push locally to reduce the number of guns in the hands of local residents or restrict access to them, but buyers are concerned federal rules may limit access to semi-automatic rifles, certain types of ammunition and large magazines, Nease said.

At the Saturday show, some shoppers looked at bolt- and lever-action rifles, revolvers, scopes and holsters, but the crowds gathered around dealers offering AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles. About half the buyers leaving in the noon hour walked out with ARs or similar guns.

“I can’t believe I paid this much for one, but I do think they’re about to be much harder to get,” said Rick Benson, who drove in from his Madison County home to select an SKS semi-auto rifle. “It seems like everybody’s got the same thought, and so the prices are getting steep.”

Local prices for AR-15s and other semi-automatic rifles have also climbed on armslist.com, a gun-sales website. Prices vary depending on manufacturer, condition and accessories, but most are several hundred dollars more than comparable sales from early December, ranging between $1,200 and $3,000.

Two popular calibers of ammunition for those rifles, .223 caliber and 7.62mm, are even harder to find.

“We haven’t had a single round of .223 in the store in several weeks. Nobody’s got any, it seems,” Nease said.

Dealers at the show were offering discounts on other merchandise, including other sizes of ammo and smaller-capacity magazines for handguns.

“I got a great deal on some .30-30 rounds for my deer rifle,” said H.L. Goodwin of Springdale. “It’s something I’ll use, but it’s not what everybody’s looking at today.”

Local politicians and activists are taking other measures following Sandy Hook.

Former Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., is spearheading a proposal by the National Rifle Association to provide armed guards in every school in the nation. The group’s Education and Training Emergency Response Program has sparked national debate over arming teachers or other employees in school settings.

“We’re looking at a lot of things, from who could or should be armed at a school to the design of the buildings themselves,” Hutchinson said. “Anything that will improve the safety of schoolchildren, we’re taking it into consideration. We’ve had suggestions from everybody from the Secret Service to students themselves.”

Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, plans to reintroduce a bill allowing full-time employees with concealed-carry permits to carry handguns on public college campuses. It will be essentially the same proposal that died in the state House’s Education Committee last session by an 8-8 vote.

The bill won’t include lower-level schools because of federal laws regulating firearms there, Collins said.

“That’s going to require action in Washington, not Little Rock,” Collins said. “I don’t want to end up in a position where someone who’s following state law would end up with a federal problem if they ever had to act, so my bill will stick to just the college campuses.”

University of Arkansas policy bans all weapons on campus, and that rule will continue to be enforced unless it’s changed, said Lt. Gary Crain of the university police department.

People should focus on mental health issues in the aftermath of Sandy Hook, according to some.

“We have a mental health problem in this country,” said Anne Britton, a local National Rifle Association activist. “I work in mental health, and I’ve tried to help at least one patient get on the no-buy list voluntarily. Nobody knew how to do it.”

Nease expects the sales surge to continue at least until a federal committee returns recommendations on possible gun-control measures.

“If they suggest certain things, sales will spike even higher,” Nease said. “What’s weird about this situation is that nothing has actually happened yet.”

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