Fearful Southerners buy firearms at torrid pace
By Lisa Anderson, Michael Martinez and Ray
Quintanilla, Tribune staff reporters. Lisa Anderson reported from Baton
Rouge, Michael Martinez from Mobile, Ala., and Ray Quintanilla from
Chicago
September 8, 2005
BATON ROUGE, La. --
Gun sales across the South boomed after the first reports surfaced of
armed looters roaming the streets of New Orleans in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina. And images of shots being fired at relief workers
only elevated fears in some communities.
Now, as hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes
are being resettled, gun store owners say they're being flooded by a
demand for guns--particularly in Southern states and others where many
of the hurricane victims are being relocated.
Mostly, they say, the demand is being fueled by "good people" wanting
to protect their families and property. That includes some who might
not otherwise purchase such weapons, they add.
Frank Pirie says his Baton Rouge store, Bowie Outfitters, is being
inundated by people seeking handguns and shotguns in the storm's
aftermath. "It's probably as many as we'd sell in almost a year," he
said.
On Wednesday morning he sold handguns to three nurses who were
working in downtown New Orleans. Pirie also gave them shooting lessons,
he said.
The nurses told Pirie they were "going back into a war zone," he said.
"They weren't going back without protection."
But sales are particularly brisk among men and women in Baton
Rouge who are growing concerned about a wave of newcomers into their
community--most of whom arrive with little more than the clothes on
their back.
"They're saying this is racist, ma'am, but that's not true," said
Pirie, adding that in recent days he has sold guns to both whites and
blacks.
"People are just nervous. There is a certain element that was down
in New Orleans that has been displaced." Among the good people, he and
others fear, is a criminal element that includes drug dealers who have
lost their jobs and people who steal for a living.
The FBI, which conducts criminal background checks on those
wanting to buy guns, says it's too early to tell whether a surge in gun
sales is taking place in Louisiana or anyplace else. In any case, there
is no shortage of homeowners putting up signs that read "Looters will
be shot on sight."
On the ground, there is mounting evidence to suggest firearms are
a hot commodity. Take the neighborhood surrounding the Astrodome in
Houston, where gun stores say they're selling at a brisk pace.
"Basically, what we are seeing is people who are just afraid,"
said Valde Garcia, manager of Bailey's House of Guns near the
Astrodome, where thousands of Katrina's victims have been housed
temporarily.
Fear has sparked a demand for firearms among those who might not
otherwise want guns, Garcia said, adding that he has sold a dozen
guns--mostly handguns--to Houston homeowners who did not know what else
to do to ease their fears.
"What we offer is a way for people to protect themselves," he
said. "Keep in mind nobody knows who these folks coming into the
community are."
Sales up 30%
In Mobile, at the southern Alabama chain of seven pawnshops called
Eddie's Wholesale Jewelry, gun sales are up 30 percent in the wake of
Katrina because area residents say they want protection from "looters
and gang members" who are arriving from New Orleans, according to a
chain owner and store clerks.
"Things are crazy," said Josh Collins, 25, a clerk at the Eddie's
in Mobile's Critchon neighborhood. "It's just people in time of need.
"There's a lot of gang people from New Orleans. Didn't you hear
they're shooting at police [in New Orleans]? The people are coming
here. You've just got to be ready, you know," he said.
A favorite handgun is the .38, sold mostly to women, he said. The
gun takes five rounds, is easy to load and costs less than $300, he
explained.
"It's just for protection. People are trying to steal everything,"
Collins said.
Race is hot topic
The hot topic of conversation in Eddie's pawnshop Wednesday was
the race issue--whether the images of black looters in New Orleans were
unfairly casting evacuees from New Orleans as potential criminals in
their newly adopted communities.
An owner of the Eddie's chain, Sandra Gillespie, 45, who is white,
struck up a conversation with customer Henrietta Brown, 51, who is
black, when she entered the store to cash a check. About 55 percent to
60 percent of handgun buyers at the pawnshop are African-American,
according to Gillespie and Collins.
"Let me ask you if it's a race issue," Gillespie asked Brown as she
walked into the shop.
"No," Brown replied. "They say people are coming over here [from
New Orleans] and beating people. I'm scared. It's just a bunch of sorry
. . . thugs.
"It's mixed," Brown added. "No, it ain't all black. Don't put it on
that," Brown told a reporter visiting the shop.
Brown, a van driver at a day-care center call Kidds Klub Academy, said
she already owns a handgun.
"I got it. I'm ready," Brown said. "I'm trying to be nice, but if
they come over, it's pow-pow," she said, gesturing as if she were
holding a shotgun.
A 20-year-old African-American man, who declined to give his name,
walked into a Mobile pawnshop and asked to look at two handguns. The
man, who said he was thinking of buying a handgun for his 21st birthday
in December, said he believed five evacuees from New Orleans were
trying to take over portions of a public housing project and waved guns
at him and his friends.
A scuffle ensued, according to the man, who said he and more than a
dozen friends overpowered the group from New Orleans.
Larry Anderson, 50, who has run the largest gun store in central
Florida for more than 15 years, said he's not surprised by the surge in
gun sales across Louisiana and other parts of the South in the last few
days.
"Whenever people feel their way of life is being threatened, they
are going to go out and buy guns for protection," said Anderson, whose
store has an inventory of about 1,500 firearms.
"It happened during 9/11, and it happens just about every time there's
a hurricane on the way in Florida too."
When last year's hurricane season was over, he said, gun stores
reported sales increases of 20 to 25 percent. That's a banner year by
any measure, Anderson said.