Madison gun sales soar

By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter
Published: November 19, 2008

Since mid-summer, Madison County’s main gun supplier – MWP Supply Inc. – has seen its gun and ammunition sales jump by 70 percent, store representatives reported last week.

“We sort of suspected it would happen because obviously [President-Elect Barack] Obama is sort of anti-gun,” said Charlotte Hoffman, president of Madison County-based home-building outfitter MWP Supply Inc.

Other areas of the U.S. have seen a similar rise in gun sales following the Nov. 4 election of Obama, according to recent news reports.

“Every single gun I sold last week – which was 10 guns… Everyone said they wanted to get a gun before Obama was in office,” MWP Vice President Toby Allen told The Eagle Nov. 11.

While Hoffman says that she suspects specific things the president-elect has said have led residents to believe he will pass stricter gun laws, she acknowledges “you always have the rumor mill.”

MWP Salesmen Earl Tuel and Dan Woodall say they have heard about possible upcoming changes in gun laws under the Obama administration and are both concerned.

“I heard he’s going to try and change the Constitution, whether or not it’s true, I don’t know,” said Tuel.

Besides changes regarding weapons laws, Hoffman says she has heard customers talk of possible upcoming limits on ammunition sales.

The Madison-based store has seen a more prominent increase in its handgun sales versus its long guns, according to Allen. The store does not sell assault weapons, whose sales have jumped in other areas, according to news reports.

Madison resident Marvin Eisenberg, who considers himself an Independent, says that although he is unsure of Obama’s specific stance on changing gun laws, many people incorrectly assume that all Democrats support “gun elimination.”

“The fact is there are a few radical Democrats…that are fanatically trying to basically outlaw guns and the whole Democratic Party has been smeared with this,” Eisenberg told The Eagle.

However, not all Democrats support “outlawing” guns, he said, adding that the National Rifle Association endorsed newly elected Democratic Sen. Mark Warner. 

While MWP has not yet had to increase its gun prices, the store – which orders most of its guns, rather than stocking them – has found that gun prices are increasing, likely due to the rise in demand, Hoffman said. 

Store representatives recently ran a paid advertisement in The Eagle to let customers know they had “beefed up” their gun section, although Hoffman says this increase in inventory was unrelated to the store’s recent rise in sales.

However, if gun sales continue to increase, the store may boost its inventory even more, according to Hoffman.

“If we have the sales, we’ll up the inventory,” she said.