Sales In Glock Pistols Up After Arizona Shootings

[one_voice]

Hey, everyone. Not to unnerve you, but apparently, days after a madman went on a murdery rampage with a Glock in Arizona, Arizonans are heading to gun stores in droves to purchase the very same weapon used by Jared Lee Loughner. It's as good an example as anything to demonstrate that there really is no such thing as bad publicity, only an inplacable, gnawing cynicism that permeates our existence and sends us, sobbing, into a fetal position.

After a Glock-wielding gunman killed six people at a Tucson shopping center on Jan. 8, Greg Wolff, the owner of two Arizona gun shops, told his manager to get ready for a stampede of new customers.
Wolff was right. Instead of hurting sales, the massacre had the $499 semi-automatic pistols -- popular with police, sport shooters and gangsters -- flying out the doors of his Glockmeister stores in Mesa and Phoenix.

"We're at double our volume over what we usually do," Wolff said two days after the shooting spree that also left 14 wounded, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who remains in critical condition.


Of course, this is nothing new, nor is it a localized oddity:

One-day sales of handguns in Arizona jumped 60 percent on Jan. 10 compared with the corresponding Monday a year ago, the second-biggest increase of any state in the country, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data. From a year earlier, handgun sales ticked up yesterday 65 percent in Ohio, 16 percent in California, 38 percent in Illinois and 33 percent in New York, the FBI data show, and increased nationally about 5 percent.
Federally tracked gun sales, which are drawn from sales in gun stores that require a federal background check, also jumped following the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, in which 32 people were killed.

*snip*

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/11/arizonans-flock-up-the-bl_n_807517.html

[Joanne98]

1. Maybe the customers were liberals getting something to defend themselves with.

[one_voice]

4. Could be...

I'm looking to buy..don't live in Arizona, but I'm gonna buy one. My brother is a retired cop and he's gonna help me pick it out and practice with it.

[Kolesar]

13. I can think of a lot better uses of $500

Unless you live in an extremely dangerous neighborhood.

How about a $500 bicycle? Or a payment on a new house somewhere else?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Some of the most hardcore 2nd Amendment Democrats I know are mugged/bashed progressives

They are still quite progressive, just well armed ones.

[krabigirl]

6. That was my first thought.

[AlinPA]

2. Copycats?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Per my favortie arms merchant, the inventory is going fast, even at the wholesale level

Primarily Glocks but other double stack pistols as well. Hi capacity magazines are already gone.

[Gaedel]

10. I don't like Glocks

I prefer an automatic with a hammer. I like to feel the hammer with my thumb while I am holstering or pocketing the pistol. If the trigger catches on something, I can feel the hammer coming back and stop. No hammer and you catch the trigger on something you shoot yourself in the leg or foot.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

18. They are not my favorite either

But they fit many people quite well. You either like their unusual trigger and safety or you do not.

[guitar man]

21. I don't care for them either

I have an original Colt 1911 (pre-a1) that was made in 1918 or 1919 according to the serial number. I've had quite a few pistols but none of them fit me like this one does. If I were to go looking for a 9mm, I like the Browning Hi-Power as good as any of them. I know, I'm a sentimental old fool :P

[Gaedel]

25. I have big hands

but none of the double stack pistols "feel right" when I hold it. I like the grip of the M1911A1 and use mostly my S&W "clone" at the range.

I guess I am a "sentimental old fool" as well. I carried a M1911A1 for many years in the service.

[Powdered Toast Man]

7. If I had an infatuation with guns I'd be buying them too.

Fortunately I don't.

[theaocp]

9. Fuckin'-A +1,000 n/t

[gratuitous]

8. Why Glock?

I understand police have concluded that Loughner fired 31 times, and killed only six. At that range, a gathering in a supermarket parking lot, that seems to be either remarkably inept marksmanship or a very poor choice of weapon.

[X_Digger]

12. They're very reliable, and decently priced.

I don't have one because they just don't fit my hand and natural point of aim the way other guns do.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

20. Reasonable price, reliable, accurate, lots of aftermarket support

There were 20 people shot, some more than once. Its not clear the perp used those magazines or even shot it before Saturday. After he shot Rep Giffords, its not clear if he was shooting to clear a path to run or just spraying. Someone with basic training (military or civilian) could have done more damage, even with standard magazines.

[spin]

11. Some Democrats are making noises about another Assault Weapons Ban ...

or a ban on high capacity magazines. Every time they do, the sale of firearms skyrockets.

In the Gungeon I made this prediction:

I predict Glocks and hi-cap magazines will be in short supply by the end of the week. This month will probably set new sales records for all firearms and even ammo.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=356495&mesg_id=356558

I quickly got this reply:

I checked with my favorite arms merchant over lunch and he said the run is on ...

He has none in stock and all those at his three distributors are gone too. The demand it starting to bleed over into other double stack 9mm handguns like Springfield Armory, Beretta and Sig, even the lower end lines like Taurus are starting to sell more actively. Here in CA mags over 10 rounds are banned, but there are lots of low capacity magazines available.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=356495&mesg_id=356583

The last AWB was a total failure as the sale of assault weapons was never banned and they sold like hotcakes becoming the most popular selling firearms in our country. You could always buy hi-cap magazines even during the ban, they just cost more. As long as they were manufactured before a certain date they were legal to sell. Manufacturers pumped out enormous qualities of these magazines before the cut off date.

[RamboLiberal]

14. Shit - I hope the fools don't screw up the ammo supplies

again like they did in 2009. I need to resupply for IDPA season starting in March.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[benEzra]

24. You do know that IDPA is a competitive shooting circuit, right?

Similar to IPSC?

I thought you were in tight with skeet shooters or something. Don't they use ammunition too, or do people in your neck of the woods just point unloaded shotguns at the clay birds and shout "bang bang"?

[RamboLiberal]

15. Kind of dupe to earlier thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x356495

[KansasVoter]

16. No doubt the Gun crowd saw that they were effective and want one now.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. Nonsense...

Glocks have been around in a number of calibers and models for some time. Anyone who was interested in shooting already knew about them.

Clearly some are speculating, others who wanted one are now getting it out of fear of lack of supply or another asinine attempt to ban new sales.

[damntexdem]

22. Lots of madmen in the U.S.

And now they'll all be carrying Glocks.

This country is doomed.

[benEzra]

23. That's the predictable result of the calls for new bans this week...

The gun prohibitionists tried to outlaw Glocks once, and this week the NYT and Brady Campaign have been running articles implying that Glocks are not "regular" pistols and should perhaps be banned.

So what you have is people who think they might want to own a Glock someday deciding to go ahead and get it now, just in case the zealots get their way and push through some sort of gun or magazine ban, which is unlikely but certainly possible.

In the circles I shoot competitively in (USPSA), the Glock is one of the top 3 most common pistols in matches, the other two being the Springfield XD/XD(m) and 1911 clones. I currently shoot a S&W but will probably transition to a Glock 17/34 or an XD(m) someday.