Dealers say gun sales are strong; background checks hit a record

Ed Tarpy has watched his sales soar over the last year and listened to the stories of customers who have come to his Deptford shop to buy a gun for the first time.

The pattern is familiar.

"We've been in business here since 1965, and when the economy drops, the sales of firearms go up," said Tarpy, owner of Ed's Gun Shop.

The national rate of violent crime has trended down in recent years, but "people say they're concerned about home break-ins," he said.

"They know there are fewer police [due to layoffs]. And they're worried about being able to buy firearms in the future" if gun laws become more restrictive.

Statistics suggest gun purchases in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the country may have reached an all-time high last year.

A record 16.4 million background checks of prospective gun buyers were performed by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in 2011, two million more than in 2010. U.S. firearms dealers submitted more than 1.5 million requests for background checks in December alone, the most ever in a month, according to FBI data.

In New Jersey, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, about 60,000 background checks were requested last year, up roughly 20 percent from 2010. The state requires a firearms identification card to buy a rifle or shotgun and an ID card and permit to buy a handgun.

In Pennsylvania, where neither a firearms identification card nor a purchase permit is required to buy a weapon, nearly 719,000 checks were requested, an increase of about 15 percent from 2010.

The 2011 NICS figures were the highest ever recorded for either state.

Background checks do not equal gun sales, cautions the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the nation's largest grassroots organization for gun-violence prevention. About 1.3 percent of searches typically result in denial for the person seeking permission to buy a weapon, according to the FBI. And not all who are approved end up buying guns.

Some gun owners undergo multiple checks, which could lead to inflated sales estimates, said Caroline Brewer, a spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign. Kentucky, she said, runs fresh background checks monthly on owners with concealed-weapon permits.

There might not be a growing number of gun owners, Brewer said: "Fewer and fewer people have more and more guns. Twenty percent of gun owners possess about 65 percent of the guns. . . . They're stockpiling."

But dealers say the number of firearms purchased could exceed the number of clearances because many people buy multiple weapons.

The FBI, Pennsylvania State Police, and New Jersey State Police would not speculate on what has led to the increase in background searches or whether the public-safety concern some customers expressed is warranted.

"There's certainly a long, heavily charged debate in many areas of the country over the lack of security or decrease in law enforcement," said Special Agent Bryan Travers, an FBI spokesman in Newark, N.J. "The FBI won't come down on one side of the issue or the other."

Elected officials have taken note of the apparent spike in gun ownership, legal and illegal.

In his second inaugural address, Mayor Nutter recently spoke of a "proliferation of illegal guns" and an "epidemic" of African American men involved in shootings as perpetrators and victims.

He suggested a crackdown on illegal weapons, likely in partnership with federal and state agencies, and said 120 extra police officers would be on the streets by summer.

The gun issue is a concern for Nutter and new Philadelphia City Council President Darrell L. Clarke, who cosponsored a package of gun-control bills in 2008 that prompted the National Rifle Association to sue.

Other officials have focused on legislation that gives legal gun owners more freedom.

"People have a responsibility to protect themselves," said New Jersey State Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D., Cape May). "They're concerned about the loss of police protection. There are those who believe [that future gun] laws will be more onerous and that it will be more difficult to purchase guns.

"When we increase restrictions on legal gun owners, that doesn't stop the bad guys and gangbangers," Van Drew said. "It doesn't necessarily enhance our safety."

In the new legislative session, he said, he plans to reintroduce a bill he pushed in 2010 that would allow gun owners who take a special course to obtain a permit to carry a concealed firearm.

"The legislation is the thoughtful, logical approach to the right to carry," Van Drew said. "When I first introduced it, some were saying we'd have the Wild West, with shootouts on the streets.

"But in other states where individuals have their Second Amendment rights and it's much easier to get carry permits, things are just fine," he said. In the proposed gun course, "you will learn how to lawfully use the weapon and be proficient, and how to break it down and clean it."

Twenty-eight states allow the right to carry concealed weapons.

In Congress, the only gun bill considered recently was the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, which would require states to recognize other states' concealed-carry permits. The measure passed the House but was held up in the Senate.

The number of annual firearms background checks - the NICS has performed nearly 141 million since 1998 - has risen steadily for nearly a decade, and it surged in 2006.

"We're seeing a variety of people coming in," said Bob Viden Jr., owner of Bob's Little Sports Shop in Glassboro and president of the New Jersey Firearms Dealers Association. "More women are shooting than ever before.

"Our range is filled every day," he said. "We've never had it as busy as the past three or four months."

Many customers have expressed concern about the effect the next president will have in filling Supreme Court vacancies, Viden said.

In 2010, the court, by a 5-4 majority, determined the Second Amendment applied to states - a landmark decision that struck down gun bans in Chicago and Washington.

"This time of year, business usually slows down, but it hasn't," Viden said. "We have a very steady flow of people buying handguns and shotguns. It's really strange."

Thousands of firearms - including machine guns - are bought not only at shops but also at gun shows across the country, said John Lunsford, a gun dealer and owner of Captain John's Gunsmithing in Woodbine, N.J.

"We're seeing panic buying, and it's by people who do not own firearms," Lunsford said.

An enormous number of automatic-weapons sales are transacted at gun shows, Lunsford said. "The desire for them is like a bottomless pit."

Legally purchased guns are not the problem, Van Drew said. "New Jersey is a bit gun-phobic," he said. "We just need to enforce the laws and enhance penalties for those using guns illegally."

The person who goes through a background check "is not going to commit a crime with a gun," said Gary Cundiff, a retired Cherry Hill police officer and a low-volume gun dealer for 30 years. "The criminal doesn't care about the law.

"A spike in crime is usually followed by a spike in gun sales, not the other way around," he said. "That's what we're seeing now, people feeling insecure."

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