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Area gun stores doing brisk business
Ernie Lyles has operated a gun shop in Northern Virginia for 24 years, but he's never had a month like the one he had in November.
"Our sales are way, way up, probably more than double what we do most years," said Lyles, general manager of Gilbert's Small Arms Range in Lorton. "The biggest problem right now is that [the guns] people want are out of stock. The manufacturers can't get 'em here fast enough."
Lyles likens the recent buying spree to the 1994 surge that preceded a 10-year ban on semiautomatic military-style rifles. Lyles said most of this year's gun buyers are worried that President-elect Barack Obama will re-impose that ban.
"I lived through the Clinton years, but a lot of others in this business didn't," said Lyles. "Two out of every three gun shops in Virginia went under [during the 1990s]. You can only sell so many guns to police departments and federal agencies."
Although rising gun sales are being reported across the country, the trend cannot be documented because local, state and federal agencies do not track gun sales.
But area dealers like Earl Curtis, president of Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, say it's real.
"We were already having a great year before the election, but business has probably doubled since Nov. 4," he said. "People are afraid their rights will be taken away. There are some real concerns about this president and the economy."
In addition to the uptick in sales, both Lyles and Curtis say other areas of the gun business are booming. "Right now, the wait to get into one of our firearm safety classes is about three months," Lyles said. "A year ago, it was probably closer to two or three weeks."
At Blue Ridge Arsenal, Curtis estimates that 50 percent of his revenue comes from gun sales, and the other half from training classes and rental time on target ranges. Among the items covered in every basic firearms-safety course are marksmanship fundamentals and the physiological response to adrenaline. Another encouraging development is a steady rise in the number of female clients at Blue Ridge, Curtis said.
"We have some great programs for women, which is something we've always paid attention to," he said. "Right now, one in every four customers is female. That's just smart business, because wherever women go, men usually follow."
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