By David Cruz
Correspondent
Caso’s Gun-A-Rama is doing brisk business today. Firearm sales have been strong this season, but they’re always strong during the holidays, says Caso’s manager Ryman Navoa. He says sales this year have also been driven by fear, crime and, in the wake of San Bernardino, terrorism. “I think it’s a little bit of both, depending on what neighborhood you live in,” he said. “People live in good neighborhoods and see the crime on TV and they want to protect themselves from crime. Terrorism is also another thing. They see the thing in California that happened during a holiday party, so it can happen at any point in time anywhere.”
Atlantic Highlands resident Sharon Guthrie’s husband works in the medical field and when superstorm Sandy hit, he was called in to the city. “I didn’t see him for two weeks and we live on the beach, so we had no electricity for four weeks and I was by myself, so I needed a gun,” she recalled. “It was very scary.”
Just over a million guns a month are sold legally in the U.S., but statistics show that firearms sales also spike – almost double, in fact – whenever the government suggests a tightening of gun laws in reaction to mass shooting, as the president did in light of the attacks in California earlier this month.
“It’s going to be important for all of us, including our legislatures, to see what we can do to make sure that when individuals decide that they want to do somebody harm, we’re making it a little harder for them to do it” he said in the aftermath.
“He demonstrates that he doesn’t believe in guns and he wants to restrict it,” said Second Amendment Society President Alexander Roubian. “He wants to ban guns and if he had his way, that’s exactly what would happen.”
Bayonne resident Linda Lehn was in the shop looking for a new handgun for home protection. Asked if she was inspired to get a firearm because of her perceived threat that they might soon be restricted she said “Absolutely, because, I mean, if they make it any stricter, I mean, what if they take it away altogether? Then what do you do?”
Whether you’ve gifted or received a handgun this holiday season, experts say there are some basic safety rules that you should always follow. ”Always keep your finger off the trigger,” advised Navoa. “Always keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction and always treat every firearm as if it was loaded.”
In a nation with one firearm for every person in the country, basic gun safety should be a given. But along with that proliferation, comes the reality of irresponsible and criminal use, something neither side of the debate has been able to figure out.