Reply #3: SC: Firearms are tax-free today [View All]

[chat_noir]

South Carolina becomes the first state in the country to hold a sales tax holiday only for guns, starting today.And Beaufort County gun shops said they're prepared for big sales -- not only because of the holiday but due to a rising fear that a Barack Obama administration will curtail gun rights.

Bob Oberst, owner of the Palmetto State Shooting Center in Okatie, said customers have made plans to come by his store today and Saturday to make tax-free purchases.

"Gun sales are up substantially, and I think primarily because of the recent election," Oberst said. "People are deathly afraid (Obama's) going to impose sanctions on our Second Amendment rights."

He said his store's gun sales are up 90 percent over last month. That compares to national retail figures for 2007, when sales jumped from October to November by 3.1 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau data.

Doug Pennington, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Obama has been misrepresented as staunchly anti-gun. Pennington said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Washington, D.C.'s gun ban makes it "constitutionally impossible" for an Obama administration to prevent Americans from buying guns.

http://www.beaufortgazette.com/local/story/632005.html