Current Hot Topic In US.

Here is an article Lou Ann emailed me from her local paper in Texas. It is a bit scary isn't it? Thanks Lou Ann. There are numerous comments at the end of this article which I have NOT included because of the size. Those comments are even scarier!

But I have included one comment at the foot of this post.

Shortage of guns, ammo reported

A year ago, Doyle Gray had 50 to 80 rifles and handguns in inventory at the gun shop he manages in Abilene. Today he has about a half dozen firearms on hand.

In the past several months sales on guns and ammunition at shops in the Big Country are shooting up since customers fear changes in gun laws at both the state and national level.

Shortages in guns and ammunition are trickling down from the suppliers to the retailers.

"We haven't had any pistol ammo for two weeks," said Gray, who manages the Shootin' Shop on North 6th Street. "The factories are running 24 hours a day, and we still can't get any ammunition."

Other shop owners are experiencing the same problems.

"We are running out daily," said Greg Riggins, manager of Frontier Sportsman, on South 14th Street. "I've never seen it like this in the 15 years that I have been in the business."

Gun and ammunition retailers attribute the shortage in guns and ammo to the November presidential election. "There is one reason, and that is the president," said Gray.

Gray and others say the fear that the Obama administration may follow through on campaign promises to increase taxes on guns and ammunition and to reimpose a ban on assault weapons may be driving the surge in sales and the shortages.

"People are in panic mode," said Gerry Laing, manager of Weakley-Watson Sporting Goods in Brownwood. "I can't keep ammunition -- what used to sell in two weeks is selling out in day."

According to a recent story in The Wall Street Journal, purchases of guns and ammunition are surging across the country. Nearly 4 million background checks -- a key measure of sales because they are required for the purchase of a gun from a federally licensed seller -- were performed in the first three months of 2009.

That is a 27 percent increase over the same period a year earlier, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Last fall Beverly Sullivan, who lives in Mills County, had to wait six weeks before she received her new .45-caliber handgun. She also had to wait to receive the ammunition.

"I wanted to buy a case of ammunition, but the store owner wasn't selling it by the case because he didn't have enough," Sullivan said.

Most folks are looking to buy handguns from .22-caliber to 9 mm varieties. Consequently, the requests for concealed handgun licensees are rising.

Gene Hackman, who teaches concealed handgun classes in Abilene, says his class enrollments have increased since January.

Texas issued 73,090 licenses in fiscal year 2008. The state requires applicants pass a training course, pass a criminal-background check and be at least 21 years old. The number of licenses issued since January was not available from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

"But we have noticed a definite uptick in the number of applications we have received since January," said Tela Manage, spokeswoman for the DPS.

Some consumers are buying assault rifles because they believe if an assault weapons ban is reinstated, the rifles could become collectors items. Currently an AR-15 rifle sells for $1,000 and up.

But statements from the White House indicate there are no imminent plans to ban such weapons.

Between 1994 and 2004 it was illegal to manufacture weapons in the banned categories, but weapons already in circulation could be resold. The law also prohibited stores from selling ammunition magazines able to hold more than 10 rounds.

"We had one gentleman come in recently and buy two (AR-15) rifles because he said he could get a better return on them than he could on a CD at the bank," Riggins said, adding that he is completely out of that model. "I have a waiting list."

Some say retailers are fanning the rumors that Obama may try to place restrictions on the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, even though statements have come out of the Obama administration saying that the president supports the Amendment.

Earlier this month, Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, filed Senate Concurrent Resolution 54 to express opposition to federal legislation infringing on the individual right to keep and bear arms.

The resolution reasserts our "right to keep and bear arms to protect oneself, one's family, and one's possessions from either the lawlessness of other people or the tyranny of the government."

Senate Concurrent Resolution 54 specifically opposes the Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record Sale Act of 2009 filed in Congress, which would require all firearm owners to apply for and carry a federally issued license to keep a firearm in their home.

"I urge our members of Congress representing Texas to do all they can to stop the Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record Sale Act of 2009 from being passed into law and to help stand firm for our rights," Estes said in a recent news release.

This article contains material from The Associated Press.

Comment from the original (I corrected the person's English and spelling for them):

When your right to carry a gun trumps my right to life liberty and a pursuit of happiness the country is done.