MARIETTA —
Both dealers and attendees attributed the large turnout at a Marietta gun show this weekend to a fear that assault-style weapons such as the AK-47 and AR-15 will soon be banned along with some magazines under President Barack Obama’s proposed gun-control legislation.
The pending law, which Obama proposed following a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school last month, has driven up gun prices, said those who flocked to the show at Jim Miller Park.
Nicholas Denington, a 27-year-old Army veteran who served in the Iraq war, was quoted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (http://bit.ly/UFJBxI ) as saying he came to the show looking for a profit on an AK-47.
He said he paid $330 for the gun in 2006, but saw online a couple of days ago that prices had jumped to from $1,000 to $1,300.
Rafael Gonzalez of On the Square Guns in McDonough said the line at Saturday’s gun show was “out the door.”
Retired Cobb County police Officer L.E. Race, who has worked security at the show for years, noted that six months ago prices for some models of AR-15s were about $600. He said they now go for as high as $1,600.
He advised potential AR-15 consumers to wait before buying. “Everything is going to (go) back down,” he said.
Race said ammunition also was selling out. “You can’t go squirrel hunting,” he said. “You can’t find .22-caliber rounds.”
Anthony Harden, a 25-year-old Army veteran, bought a 12-gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun with a collapsible stock for $400. He said gun prices are going up because of some of the comments made by the president.
“People are panicking,” Harden said. “They are afraid they are going to be banned, so you have these ridiculous prices.”
Tom Reese, 56, of Acworth, came to his first gun show Saturday searching for a reasonably priced AR-15. Supply and demand crushed that hope. “Every store I’ve been to has been out of AR-15s,” he said.
As for the “gun show loophole,” which allows private sellers to forgo background checks on customers, the majority of sales Saturday were being conducted by licensed firearm dealers who still put customers through the paperwork, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
National, International News
Fear of ban draws crowd to Marietta area gun show
- National, International News
-
-
Bombs targeting Sunnis kill at least 76 in Iraq
Bombs ripped through Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas Friday, killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months. The major spike in sectarian bloodshed heightened fears the country could again be veering toward civil war.
-
Tornado-ravaged Texas town to start recovery
Residents whose homes were torn apart or blown away by a North Texas deadly tornado can soon return to retrieve what belongings may be left and start cleaning up, authorities said Friday.
-
Conn. commuter trains collide; 60 go to hospitals
Two commuter trains serving New York City collided in Connecticut during Friday’s evening rush hour, sending 60 people to the hospital, including five with critical injuries, Gov. Dannel Malloy said.
-
Record Powerball jackpot inspires office pools
In workplaces across the nation, Americans are inviting their colleagues to chip in $2 for a Powerball ticket and a shared daydream.
-
Today in History for Saturday, May 18, 2013
Today is Saturday, May 18, the 138th day of 2013. There are 227 days left in the year.
-
Big retailers back safety accord in Bangladesh
Some of the world’s largest retailers have agreed to a first-of-its-kind pact to improve safety at some of Bangladesh’s garment factories following a building collapse that killed more than 1,100 workers in the country last month.
-
Amtrak unveils locomotives to replace aging fleet
Amtrak has unveiled at a plant in California the first of 70 new locomotives, marking what the national passenger railroad service said it hopes will be a new era of better reliability, streamlined maintenance and more energy efficiency.
-
Police ID suspect in New Orleans mass shooting
Police late Monday identified a 19-year-old man as a suspect in the shooting of about 20 people during a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans, saying several people had identified him as the gunman captured by surveillance camera videos.
-
Obama tries to swat down 2 swirling controversies
President Barack Obama tried to swat down a pair of brewing controversies Monday, denouncing as “outrageous” the targeting of conservative political groups by the federal IRS but angrily denying any administration cover-up after last year’s deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
-
Gov’t obtains wide AP phone records in probe
The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.
- More National, International News Headlines
-
