From: [c r philli] at [hound.edaca.ingr.com] (Ron Phillips)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: AW Ban triggers buying spree!
Date: 10 May 94 18:14:46 GMT


The following article appeared on Page 4A of the Tuesday, May 10, 1994
edition of the San Jose Mercury News.

(The article is accompanied by a graph which illustrates the escalation
in price of certain firearms since the House passed the AW Ban
legislation.  The graph shows:

                                    BEFORE     AFTER

Norinco & Polytech AK-47 (Russia)     $399      $798
TEC-DC9 (U.S.)                        $299      $550*
Beretta AR-70 (Italy)               $1,000    $2,000
Colt AR-15 (U.S.)                     $899    $2,100
UZI (Israel)                          $800    $1,500
SWD M10s (U.S.)                       $375*     $500
Fabrique Nationale FNC (Belgium)      $800    $1,600*

*Average price estimate
Source: National Association of Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers


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Bill to ban assault weapons triggers big run on guns

BY ROBERT DVORCHAK
Associated Press

   Since the House voted Thursday to ban assault-style weapons and
their copycats, gun sales have been boom, boom, booming and there has
been a corresponding rapid-fire increase in prices.

   "Sales have gone through the roof.  We've had a run on just about
everything that shoots.  It's been sort of incredible," said Mike
Saporito, senior vice president at RSR Wholesale Guns of Orlando,
Fla., which supplies thousands of retail shops.

   "They cleared out warehouse after warehouse after warehouse."

   Although price tags vary, the guns on the endangered list are
fetching whatever the market will bear.  It's a basic law of 
economics --- whatever is in short supply and has a big demand will
increase in price.

   For example, an AK-47 that sold for about $200 last week has
increased 50 percent.  And Colt-made AR-15s and Sporter rifles --- the
civilian version of the military's M-16 infantry weapon --- have
doubled from about $900, and in some places, shops were asking $2,200,
according to Bob Lesmeister of the National Association of Federally
licensed Firearms Dealers.

'This is their last chance'

  "People are rushing to get them while they can.  The thinking is if
they don't get them now, they're never going to get it, that this is
their last chance," Lesmeister said.

   Retail shops say the buying frenzy is predictable.  The run on guns
was triggered late last year when Congress passed the Brady law,
requiring a waiting period for handgun buyers.  A second boom came
when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced the ban on assault-
style weapons.

   The House version approved Thursday is similar to the Senate's, but
a conference committee must work out the differences before the
measure is sent to President Clinton.  In addition to 19 weapons and
copycat models, each version of the legislation would ban magazines,
or ammunition clips, that hold more than 10 bullets.

   The buying spree has prompted some gun peddlers to give mock sales
awards to members of the Clinton administration.

   "In my opinion, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Janet Reno are the
finest gun salesmen in history," said Jim Hullinger, owner of Jim's
Military Collectibles in Plano, Texas.  "Magazines, ammo and weapons
are selling as fast as we can get them in."

   The White House pushed for the ban because the guns on the hit 
list weren't made for hunting.

   But critics such as the National Rifle Association say assault-
style weapons were used in less than 1 percent of this country's
murders.  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms says there is
no accurate figure on how many people are killed by assault-style
weapons.

   In a short run, at least, the ban on weapons that are capable of
being fired rapidly has generated heightened interest in them --- an
irony not lost on gun control advocates.

'A misunderstanding'

   "It's fueled by a misunderstanding that this is going to effect
legitimate hunting weapons.  The gun lobby is scaring people into
thinking the government is going to disarm them," said Susan
Whitmore, spokeswoman for Handgun Control, Inc.  "Obviously, the
greater good is going to be when these weapons are off the street.
The legislation will help stem the tide of violence being done with
these weapons."

   When the House voted last week, customers gathered around the TV
set at Norman Van Wagenen's gun shop in Provo, Utah.  Then they
rushed to the counters to buy guns and ammunition.

   It was the same thing elsewhere.

   "People are concerned about losing their constitutional rights.
They don't want to miss out," said Buddy Savage of Braverman Arms
Co. in Wilkinsburg, Pa., where sales quadrupled from Thursday to
Saturday.
======================================================================