As Cabela's Inc. prepares the selection of guns it will sell for the holiday season and
winter hunting, the outdoor-gear retailer has two plans: one if
President Barack Obama is re-elected, and one if he isn't. The
Sidney, Neb.-based retailer and other companies in the guns-and-ammo
business say if Mr. Obama wins a second term they are preparing for a
surge in sales—the same as they saw after he was elected in 2008—from
buyers fearful the president would back policies to make buying a gun
more difficult. If Republican challenger Mitt Romney wins, though, the
chain plans to stock more items such as waterproof boots and camouflage
hunting gear. Cabela's saw a 25% increase in new gun buyers right after the 2008
election, and continues to see strong sales, aided by an uptick in
female and younger customers, according to Mr. Arterburn. Nearly 12 million background checks for gun sales took place in the
U.S. this year through Aug. 31, up 56% from the same period in 2008,
according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Customers must undergo
background checks before buying firearms from federally licensed
sellers. Collections of federal excise taxes on the sale of new firearms and
ammunition, a proxy for gun sales, rose to $453 million in 2009, a 45%
jump from the year before. That's a significant surge compared with the
average 6% annual increase reported by the Treasury Department's Alcohol
and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau from 1993 to 2008...more
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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