At the Terry Road Pawn Shop in Jackson, military-style long guns don't stay in the cases long. What's more, it has become increasingly difficult during the last few months for owner Kevin McDonald to stock his shop with auto-loading rifles such as AR-15s and SKSes.
“The demand has gotten so high, I don't think the manufacturers can make them fast enough to keep everybody supplied,” McDonald said. “Often when we get them, we go ahead and sell them online because we can sell them at retail price or better.”
Mississippi apparently is not immune to the national surge in gun sales in response to the election of Democratic President Barack Obama and widespread speculation over a possible reinstated federal ban on assault weapons, based on the latest Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics.
FBI gun checks, an indication of gun sales because they are required for purchases, numbered more than 181,000 in the state 2008 – the highest yearly total since 1999.
“The people in Congress and the presidential administration are too wishy-washy (on gun control). There is a perception there will possibly be a ban on guns like when (former President Bill) Clinton was in office,” said Randy Reeves, owner of Randy's Sporting Goods in Oak Grove. “At the present, people are buying all the guns they can get their hands on and all the ammo they can get their hands on.”
Reeves estimated his sales have shot up 50 percent in the last six months. Read more
Source: The Clarion-Ledger
