Obama win triggers run on assault rifles

Fearing stricter gun laws from a Democrat-run Congress coupled with a Barack Obama presidency, area gun lovers are looking to buy firearms they feel are most likely to get banned.

"I am sure they will ban assault rifles again," said Richlands resident Max Jones, referring to the lapsed 1994 assault rifle ban. The measure outlawed 19 types of military-style assault weapons but was not renewed by Congress in 2004. Firearms like AK-47s, Uzis and TEC-9s have been legal since.

But gun rights advocates see another ban on the horizon.

Customers are looking for guns they expect to be banned, said Dana Fitzpatrick, owner of Flatwoods Outfitters on 2nd Amendment Lane in Hubert.

"People call up all the time looking for ARs and AKs," Fitzpatrick said, adding that if he had a large supply of those type weapons his business would likely be booming.

"We had a big rush right at election time," he said, but things have slowed since because shoppers are looking for guns he doesn't carry.

Fitzpatrick said he understands the fears of people looking to purchase the already hard-to-find rifles in light of how the presidential election went earlier this month.

"I think there is a good chance Obama will try and do something," Fitzpatrick said.

Obama promised in several campaign speeches that he has no intention of enacting strict gun control measures and told reporters he supported the Supreme Court's ruling to strike down a ban on handguns in Washington, D.C.

At an October campaign stop in Ohio, Obama said "I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I won't take your handgun away."

But gun shop owners like Fitzpatrick are not so sure the president-elect will live up to his campaign promises.

"There is a feeling he will ignore his campaign speeches and move to weaken gun rights," Fitzpatrick said.

Chris Heath, the manager of Park-N-Pawn on Lejeune Boulevard, said everyone will have to wait and see.

"We will know where Barack Obama stands on the gun control issue come January," he said.

His pawn shop is doing better gun business than it was this time last year, but guns are not flying off the racks "like you see on Yahoo! News," Heath said.

Gun sales are up though for any kind of gun, Heath said.

"We're not setting the woods on fire with gun sales, but whether you're talking handguns or rifles, I am selling more," he said.

Gun sales have shot up nationwide since Election Day. From Nov. 3 to 9, 374,000 background checks for firearm purchases were performed, up 49 percent over the same period in 2007, according to the FBI.

The National Rifle Association attributes some of the gun sales explosion to the sinking economy but thinks the Democratic sweep through Congress is the main reason people are out gun shopping, according to Wayne LaPierre, the group's executive vice president.

"I don't think (Obama) will be able to stand up to that anti-Second Amendment wing of the Democratic Party that's just been spoiling for chance to ban America's guns," LaPierre told The Associated Press.

But it is not correct to lump all incoming Democrat members of Congress into the same gun-hating camp, said Colleen Flanagan, communications director for Senator-elect Kay Hagan.

"Kay has been a strong supporter of gun rights and the Second Amendment," Flanagan told The Daily News on Friday. "She knows how important the Second Amendment is to North Carolinians."

Contact crime reporter Lindell Kay at 910-219-8456. Read Lindell's blog at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.