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Gun sales are up, but it's legal

Like it or not, gun sales are, well, booming.

There are a number of reasons but the most prevalent are people are afraid the Obama administration, sooner or later, will get around to creating more-restrictive gun ownership laws and taxes. And those are not unfounded fears.

So gun owners are stocking up on ammunition, handguns and semiautomatic rifles. Sales are up 50 percent since Barack Obama was elected.

And gun-control advocates have taken notice.

In a story in Seacoast Sunday last week, Peter Hamm of the Washington-D.C.-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence used words like "lunacy" to describe people who are buying guns.

He also said, "In this economic environment, I question the sanity of extremists who are buying up guns. What kind of choices are they making for their families?"

Equally charged rhetoric from the other extreme side of the issue doesn't help either.

Wayne LaPierre, president of the National Rifle Association, said during a recent speech, "The Second Amendment breathes life into liberty. The Founding Fathers understood that the guys with the guns make the rules."

Few topics other than abortion produce such strong and emotional points of view.

Each group's arguments and statements are like waving a red cape in front of a bull, with the desired effect.

Making the issue strident is the uncertainty over the economy and increasingly vocal concerns over the performance and direction in which President Obama is taking the country. Some — not a lot, but some — people are stocking up on more than guns and ammunition. Canned goods, for instance.

The debate over gun control has been a long one and it will continue.

More laws placing restrictions and bans on some types of weapons are possible. More laws regulating the sales of guns are also possible. Higher taxes on gun and ammunition are possible.

But there are plenty of proponents of gun ownership to challenge and argue against such regulations.

The Second Amendment still gives Americans the right to keep and bear arms. Gun ownership and possession are legal in this country.

People use them for hunting, for target shooting, for collections, for protection.

Sadly, some people use them in robberies and murders. But such people are breaking our laws when they do so. Such are not the actions of responsible gun owners. And no law can totally prevent such actions.

But it is those actions that cause fear in people who don't own and are not familiar with guns. It is what drives them to propose new laws and restrictions in an effort to protect themselves and to prevent crime.

The two sides have not been able to reach any middle ground and are not likely to do so. Each is entrenched in its views. Gun owners see every new law or regulation as an incursion on their rights. Gun-control advocates see new laws as making us more safe.

The decisions will be made in the Congress. And each side will make its arguments.

In the meantime, there is nothing to prevent people from legally stocking up on guns and ammunition.

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