Firearm permits, sales spike in Wayne County
By John Joyce
Published in News on January 2, 2016 11:47 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Larnell Thoms watches as Danny Davis fills out a form for his gun purchase Thursday at Wild Indian Gun Co. This is Thoms' first handgun. "Even if I don't use it I can teach my kids gun safety," he said
The number of handgun purchase permit applications filed with the Wayne County Sheriff's Office over the last 45 days have escalated, according to the latest figures.
Local retailers, too, report a spike in sales of firearms and accessories, mainly assault rifles. The reasons vary, but many say a combination of factors -- from the annual uptick in sales at Christmas, the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., and the expectation that stricter gun laws might be enacted during President Obama's last year in office -- can be attributed to the increase.
Since Nov 15, there have been a combined total of 668 concealed carry permit and purchase permit applications submitted.
"That is astronomical," concealed carry permit analyst Linda Williamson said. "I think it is a culmination of things, the state laws changed for purchase permits, (there have been) reports of crime in the area, San Bernardino and Christmas," she said.
Over the last year, law changes regarding gun purchases and concealed carry permits have been implemented incrementally in North Carolina.
"The prohibiting factors changed. People who were previously denied might not be denied," she said.
Laws enacted July 1, Oct. 1 and Dec. 1, made access to purchase permits easier for some people with misdemeanor convictions to obtain.
"Certain assault charges -- now, a felony is always a felony -- but certain assault charges, or I should say convictions will no longer (prohibit them)," Williamson said.
A full list of N.C. gun laws regarding both purchase permits and concealed carry permits is available on line at ncdoj.gov by searching the phrase "firearm laws."
Local retailers, though, say it is the widespread anticipation of many of their customers that the president will enact more prohibitive gun laws through the power of executive order, sometime over his last 12 months in office.
Johnny Carr, operator of the Swop Shop gun and pawn shop located at 510 S. George St., said he expects sales to increase as more and more media outlets report that such legislation is looming.
"Obama to announce new executive action on guns," Carr said, pulling out his smartphone and opening it to his news application.
"It's one of those things," he said. "And you can expect gun sales to go up even more if he is going to do something else."
Carr said the biggest increase in sales has been related to assault rifles, specifically AR-15s, magazines and ammunition.
He said he has also seen more women and more first-time purchasers with concealed carry permits than he has in years passed.
"People are feeling that their lives are in danger with all of the shootings in public, and people want something to protect themselves," Carr said.
Part of the recent increase is due to Christmas, Carr said, but more of it has to do with San Bernardino and the president he said.
He saw a similar spike two years ago following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook N.J., when an a gunman killed 20 elementary school students and six teachers and from threats of increased gun control that ensued.
The Sunday after the Dec. 2 shooting rampage in San Bernardino by Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, which killed 14 people and wounded 22 more, Obama went on television. Carr said the next day, he and several of his employees checked the websites of the gun manufacturers they do business with.
"It was one item after another -- sold out, sold out, sold out," he said.
Wild Indian Gun Co. owner Todd Gurganus said he saw the same thing.
"One distributor sold 30,000 firearms in one day," he said.
Gurganus, whose store is located at 2305 U.S.13, said he hasn't seen the same uptick in sales on the retail side that Carr mentioned. He said the spike in sales has been mostly with the manufacturers and distributors, and has been limited to the West Coast.
But Wild Indian did sell more guns and accessories over the last few weeks than it did over any other period during 2015.
Like Carr, Gurganus attributed some of those sales to the holiday season, but he too said a lot of it had to do with what the president might do this year.
"People are concerned about what (Obama) might do in his last year in office," he said.
Obama is expected to meet with the United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss an executive order for gun control Monday, according to report released by the Associated Press on Friday.
The sheriff's office has suspended accepting applications for purchase permits until Jan. 6 due to a back log.
The law gives the sheriff's office up to 14 days to process the paperwork for an application before it must turn the forms over to the county clerk of courts to be processed. That can take a while, Williamson said.
But any permit application that has already been accepted will continue to be process, and there should be no delay in those permits being made available once approved.
The average turnaround time for purchase permits is 14 days. Concealed carry permits can take up to 90 days, she said.
"If we have your application, we will call you when the permit comes in," she said.