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From the Salt Lake Tribune (http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3358934):
Gun sales shoot up on holidays
By Glen Warchol
The Salt Lake Tribune
'Tis the season of peace, good will, to be jolly and, in the case of Utah gun shops, to sell 12,728 guns.
And counting . . .
Utah will break previous annual gun sales records for the year and for the holiday season, when firearm sales are traditionally hotter than, well - a Saturday night special.
Sales have been inching up nearly every year, reaching this year's record of nearly 72,000 rifles, shotguns, pistols and revolvers sold. That's 10 percent over 2004's 65,222.
December sales - guns apparently make great gifts - are up 17 percent over the same period last year with two buying days remaining in the year.
Gun purchase figures are based on background checks run on buyers by the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification. (Guns sold by private individuals do not require background checks.)
"Sales have been going extremely well," said Sterling Morris, manager at Ogden's Impact Arms. "Over the past two, three weeks, we've been selling 20 or 30 a day."
Although Morris says most holiday firearms shoppers are "wives buying for husbands. We do see some first-time guns being bought for kids."
Impact's hottest seller has been the Benelli Nova pump shotgun, sleek in black or camouflage at $300 and $350, respectively.
Joyce Carter, manager of the firearms section of BCI, says most guns sold are long guns, that is shotguns and rifles. About a third of sales are of handguns.
She attributes part of this year's sales jump to the August opening of Cabela's sporting megastore in Lehi. Cabela's 150,000-square-foot showroom includes animal displays, aquariums and dog kennels, thousands of firearms and accessories, and draws customers regionally.
"But Cabela's doesn't account for all these sales," Carter says.
"I think we have a lot of sportsmen out there and it's a good time of year to buy a new firearm," says Lenny Rees, Hunter Education coordinator for the Department of Wildlife Resources.
Utah's increase would fly in the face of a downward trend in hunting and gun-sport participation in recent years, which researchers attribute to the competition for young people's time of nongun outdoor sports, television and video games.
"Utah's hunting license and permit sales are stable," Rees says. "In 2004, we actually had a slight increase in youth hunting licenses."
Impact has sold many novice shooters their first firearms in the last year, Morris says, "If shooting is on a decline, I'm not seeing it."
---
The trend of increased gun sales in December was first identified by University of Utah journalism student Jay Rogers in statistical records he obtained from the state.
Gun sales shoot up on holidays
By Glen Warchol
The Salt Lake Tribune
'Tis the season of peace, good will, to be jolly and, in the case of Utah gun shops, to sell 12,728 guns.
And counting . . .
Utah will break previous annual gun sales records for the year and for the holiday season, when firearm sales are traditionally hotter than, well - a Saturday night special.
Sales have been inching up nearly every year, reaching this year's record of nearly 72,000 rifles, shotguns, pistols and revolvers sold. That's 10 percent over 2004's 65,222.
December sales - guns apparently make great gifts - are up 17 percent over the same period last year with two buying days remaining in the year.
Gun purchase figures are based on background checks run on buyers by the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification. (Guns sold by private individuals do not require background checks.)
"Sales have been going extremely well," said Sterling Morris, manager at Ogden's Impact Arms. "Over the past two, three weeks, we've been selling 20 or 30 a day."
Although Morris says most holiday firearms shoppers are "wives buying for husbands. We do see some first-time guns being bought for kids."
Impact's hottest seller has been the Benelli Nova pump shotgun, sleek in black or camouflage at $300 and $350, respectively.
Joyce Carter, manager of the firearms section of BCI, says most guns sold are long guns, that is shotguns and rifles. About a third of sales are of handguns.
She attributes part of this year's sales jump to the August opening of Cabela's sporting megastore in Lehi. Cabela's 150,000-square-foot showroom includes animal displays, aquariums and dog kennels, thousands of firearms and accessories, and draws customers regionally.
"But Cabela's doesn't account for all these sales," Carter says.
"I think we have a lot of sportsmen out there and it's a good time of year to buy a new firearm," says Lenny Rees, Hunter Education coordinator for the Department of Wildlife Resources.
Utah's increase would fly in the face of a downward trend in hunting and gun-sport participation in recent years, which researchers attribute to the competition for young people's time of nongun outdoor sports, television and video games.
"Utah's hunting license and permit sales are stable," Rees says. "In 2004, we actually had a slight increase in youth hunting licenses."
Impact has sold many novice shooters their first firearms in the last year, Morris says, "If shooting is on a decline, I'm not seeing it."
---
The trend of increased gun sales in December was first identified by University of Utah journalism student Jay Rogers in statistical records he obtained from the state.
