Best of times for gun sales.

[cuervo25_1]

BELLEVILLE, N.J.

At the Bullet Hole, an Essex County gun store, and at Gun for Hire,across the street, where Anthony Colandro offers courses in firearm use, martial arts and personal safety, it’s the best of times and the worst of times.

Worst of times? Just ask Manny Cerca, who for the past 27 years has run the Bullet Hole, a family-owned shop and firing range about five miles from Newark. Inside, there are deer heads on the walls, more than 300 handguns for sale and the pop of pistols from the firing range. Outside is a patriotic and Second Amendment tableau — flags, Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and pheasant hunters on the pebbled concrete exterior.

Mr. Cerca is less impressed with today’s Democrats.

“Their agenda is to toughen the gun laws to the point that it’s going to be nearly impossible for the average citizen to buy a gun for recreational target purposes or hunting or so on and so forth,” he said. “Whatever else they say is just sweetening their little ultimate agenda.”

Best of times? Well, the gun sales and the training business may be the only things still prospering. Last year, Mr. Colandro sold two gift certificates for Father’s Day. This year, he sold 17.

Gun dealers across the nation have reported robust sales since Barack Obama’s election. In New Jersey, applications for pistol permits have soared — to roughly double last year’s totals, according to The Star-Ledger of Newark. There’s a shortage of ammunition, and many types are almost unavailable. The Bullet Hole limits ammunition sales to two boxes a customer for the firing range and one if you’re taking it home.

“It’s the full spectrum — financial people who have come across the pond from Manhattan and people who pump gas for a living,” said Mr. Colandro, who tools around in a Dodge Ram pickup with his “Gun for Hire” logo, the lowercase “i” looking like a fallen figure with blood pooling around the dot.

“I don’t think it’s so much Obama,” he added. “It’s the economic meltdown that scared the heck out of people. You have Hillary Clinton in government, and people associate her with the assault-weapons ban. Look what happened after Katrina and the L.A. riots. So you’ve got ammunition shortages and a lot of people are buying because they’re worried about confiscation.”

THE shoppers at the Bullet Hole, which offers heavy-duty wares by Glock, Smith & Wesson and other gunmakers and fashionably pink 9-millimeter, .22 and .38 women’s specials, have varied motives. Vito Garofalo, a 36-year-old longshoreman who works in Bayonne, recently moved to New Jersey from Staten Island, so he figured now was the time to get that 9-millimeter SIG Sauer pistol. He’s not worried about anyone confiscating guns, but thinks it might become tougher to purchase handguns, so he might as well get his now.

Michele Ingram of Lyndhurst, N.J., says she’s not expecting any massive crackdown on gun owners and thinks it’s fine if other states are forced to mandate tougher background checks like the ones in New Jersey.

“I think that’s a good thing. Same with banning AK-47 and those kind of terroristic weapons,” she said. “That’s what they should be concerned about. Someone knocking on my door saying, ‘We’re here for your pistol?’ I guess I’ll believe it when it happens.”

It mostly sounds reasonably benign, except when it doesn’t.

“He has his dish full right now,” Mr. Cerca said about Mr. Obama. “He has no time for gun laws. If he starts screwing around with gun laws, I think the American people are going to flip out. And they’re going to go to Pennsylvania Avenue. And they’re going to line them up on Pennsylvania Avenue, every Congressional person there. And they’re going to shoot every other one.

“And who’s left standing? They’re going to send them back in there again and say, ‘We’re going to line you up and see what you do for the American people in the next 30 days.’ I’m serious when I tell you this.”

Two college students, Ross Innocenti, in a Ron Paul T-shirt, and Jeremy Penino, also think Mr. Obama has more pressing issues than guns. As for the fury from gun sellers and owners, Mr. Penino seems a bit skeptical.

“You’ve got all these people using this as an excuse to stock up,” he said. “It kind of feeds on itself. Right now, with the Democrats in office, the gun industry is booming. Maybe they realize they’re better off that way. Obama’s the best thing they have going for them.”
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“Government is good at one thing: It knows how to break your legs, then hand you a crutch and say, ‘See, if it weren’t for us you wouldn’t be able to walk.”

[knightryda01]

And you guys thought Obama woulden't help the economy. I wish people would quit with the worst case senerios. Their never going to ban guns and hunting. They make too much money from it to ban it.

[cuervo25_1]

I actually read an article a couple months back that said that obama stated that he would not go for any gun bans, it would be to unpopular. Now it isn't so much Obama but the clintons, pelosi and lord knows who else in the gov't. that worries me on this issue.

[steelerfan]

One of the local pistol ranges here has a picture of Obama on his wall with "salesman of the year award" on it. But as far as trying to outlaw guns,if you don't believe they're not trying,join the NRA & read some of their articles on the political fights they're involved with.The Dems are trying to do this through the back door as they know to actually outlaw guns outright would be too hard.How about major restrictions on guns & ammo that make it all but impossible for gun & ammos makers to turn a profit thereby driving them out of business or raising the cost of these things so high the avg. guy can't afford them anymore