Guns and Safes, Hot Items for Christmas

The post-election surge in gun buying continues:

Business is booming at gun shops around Orange County.

“The first two weeks of November have been extraordinary,” says Randy Garell of The Grant Boys in Costa Mesa. “Sales are running about 60 percent over last November.”

The reason? Fear.

One fear is that President-elect Barack Obama will restrict gun rights. Those flames were fanned last month when National Rifle Association chief lobbiest Chris W. Cox said: ”Barack Obama would be the most anti-gun president in our nation’s history.”

Gun sales spiked and have continued since Election Day.

“The reason I keep hearing is that people are concerned that their rights will be taken away, ” says Tony Alvarez, gun department manager of the Army-Navy Store in Orange.


Manufacturers can’t keep up with demand.

“We’re selling everything we can get our hands on,” says the Grant Boys’ Garell. “The other day, a husband and wife came in to buy Christmas presents. He bought a gun for her and she bought one for him.”

There’s another fear at play, too: Fear that if recession turns to depression, civil unrest may follow.

People want guns to protect themselves, Garell says. And to protect something else now starting to sell like hotcakes across the nation.

Safes.

Says Garell: “They’re pulling their money out of banks and putting it in safes.”

Obama may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to the firearms industry.

By the way, if you have any old crappy guns you don't want anymore, take them to Compton and the cops will give you gift cards:

COMPTON -- In an effort to make the city of Compton a safer place, authorities on Saturday gave $100 gift cards to people who turned in firearms and $200 gift cards for assault weapons.

The fourth annual "Gifts for Guns" event was held at a Ralphs supermarket at 280 E. Compton Blvd., where the weapons were collected by sheriff's personnel and volunteers at a booth set up in the parking lot.

The booth will be set up again Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"We're trying to rid our city of guns being shot, people being killed," said City Councilwoman Barbara Calhoun.

People who turned in guns were not asked to identify themselves or say where the weapons came from, said Sgt. Byron Woods.

They define the program as successful because of the number of guns they've gotten. However, I haven't read any articles that suggest there's been a decline in gun crime in Compton. The bad guys don't usually turn in their guns.