Shoppers swarm gun stores on Black Friday, the biggest day of the year for gun sales.
Black Friday is traditionally the biggest gun sales day of the year. 2015 set a single-day record for gun purchase background checks — with an NRA-endorsed President-elect Trump, will Black Friday 2016 set a new record?
Get Them While The Getting Is Good!
When the Obama assault on the Second Amendment began, gun sales started to climb as more and more Americans felt the need to protect themselves and their families. Now that gun rights supporter Donald Trump is stepping into the Oval Office things have changed. Black Friday gun sales are not driven by the fear of loosing the right to buy a gun, nor are they the result of the Christmas spirit since gun laws in many states prohibit buying guns for someone else. The sales are driven by deep discounts.
Not far from New York City, hundreds of shoppers packed into RTSP, a gun shop and firing range in Randolph, New Jersey, lured by Black Friday discounts of 5% to 10% for guns, ammunition and accessories.
Dr. Joseph Feldman, a surgeon from neighboring Montville, was buying a $500 Sig Sauer scope for his R.E.P.R. semiautomatic rifle from the manufacturer LWRCI, one of four AR-15s that he owns. He was also buying ammunition for the AR-15s and had his eye on a Henry, a vintage-style lever action rifle manufactured in nearby Bayonne.
“I like to have lots of ammo on hand,” he said.
Feldman, 56, estimated that purchasing these scope, ammo and the Henry rifle on Black Friday, with his gun range member discounts, would save him about $500.
The store was crowded with gun owners waiting for a turn at the indoor range, their firearms locked in carrying cases, as required by state law.
This turnout was in spite of the fact that Hillary Clinton — the gun industry’s biggest boogiemanwith her gun control policies — failed to win the White House.
Rick Friedman, co-owner of RTSP said he’d stocked eight to 12 months’ worth of guns and ammo, anticipating a frenzied demand if Clinton had won.
“We were gearing up for a much different result,” he said. “[But] if you’re in this industry you’re obviously very happy about the result.”
Friedman figured that he’d take longer to sell off the inventory now that NRA-endorsed Donald Trump is headed for the White House.
Ryan Reyes, manager of LI Outdoorsman, a gun store in Rockville Centre on Long Island, New York, said sales were driven by “the politics up until right before the election.”
But on Black Friday, he said customers were lured by discounts of 10% to 50%. He had sold 15 guns on Black Friday instead of the usual two or three, before the day was even over.
“It’s just crazy in here with all the discounts,” he said. “We’ve been getting calls all week about the discounts, and it was a slow week.”
From: money.cnn.com
VIDEO: Gun Sales Boom On Black Friday
sources: Youtube, money.cnn.com