Gun sales increase in county

During the post-Christmas wrap-up of sales during the 2011 shopping season, several news organizations reported an unexpected finding – guns were among the best-selling Christmas items nationwide.
The reports, based on federal background checks through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), showed there were a record 1,534,414 inquiries by gun retailers in December for people buying guns.
Nearly 500,000 of those were in the six days leading up to Christmas alone, peaking on Dec. 23 with 102,222 background checks, a number that still didn’t beat Black Friday’s one-day record of 129,166.
In South Carolina, there were a total of 30,538 requests for weapons background checks in December, 7,184 more than the 23,354 requests gun dealers made in November – the latter number nearly matching December 2010’s total of 23,732 checks.
Since South Carolina doesn’t require permits to buy most any weapon short of a machine gun, and the fact that buyers often purchase more than one weapon at a time, it’s nearly impossible to determine the number of guns sold locally during the season.
But local gun vendors say their sales definitely mirrored the national trend this December – and increased even more in the wake of Kershaw resident Beverly Hope Melton’s Dec. 26 abduction, rape and murder.
With other violent incidents continuing to make headlines in Lancaster, handgun sales are staying high, they said.
Tom Foster of Van Wyck Sporting Goods, formerly Discount Guns, which Foster sold to his brother Roger Foster last year, said gun sales have been good since November.
He said while gun sales are traditionally good at the beginning of the year as customers purchase guns in anticipation of tax refunds, he’s seen a better-than-usual uptick in sales since late December of small, concealed-carry handguns for personal protection.
Also more than usual, Foster said, is the fact that much of those sales have been by and for women.
He minces no words in explaining why he believes that is.
“There’s been an increase, especially with all this crime going on in Lancaster right now,” Foster said. “Lots of people are buying guns; they’d be fools not to.
“Even the sheriff (Barry Faile) said he couldn’t protect everybody and recommended buying a gun,” he said.
Further north in the Panhandle, Terry Vinesette of Vinesette’s Jewelers and Firearms said handgun sales at the gun shows he works in Greenville and Columbia have increased.
Vinesette said while his customer base was almost exclusively men before, he is now seeing more women buying handguns.
Having been in business in Indian Land only two years come May, Vinesette said it’s hard to tell whether his in-store sales are above average or not, though he has noticed a telling threefold increase in another area.
“I’ve sold some guns, but my concealed-carry classes have about tripled,” Vinesette said. “We normally had about 10 people a month, but in January we had over 30, and already got quite a few lined up for February already.
“It’s older and younger people than usual, too – a lot more older people,” he said.
Vinesette said he believes the Melton murder and other recent crimes in Lancaster County have prompted the increase in people wanting to carry protection.
And as a retired Fort Mill police officer with 26 years of experience, Vinesette said he tends to agree with Faile on the issue of carrying a gun.
“Over the years I was an officer, I saw many victims who wouldn’t have been victims if they’d been armed,” Vinesette said.