Gulf Coast Crisis: Gun Purchases

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GULF COAST CRISIS: GUN PURCHASES


Fearful Southerners buy firearms at torrid pace

By Lisa Anderson, Michael Martinez and Ray Quintanilla,
Tribune staff reporters.
Lisa Anderson reported from Baton Rouge,
Michael Martinez from Mobile, Ala., and Ray Quintanilla from Chicago
Published September 8, 2005

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Gun sales across the South boomed after the first reports surfaced of armed looters roaming the streets of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. And images of shots being fired at relief workers only elevated fears in some communities.

Now, as hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes are being resettled, gun store owners say they're being flooded by a demand for guns--particularly in Southern states and others where many of the hurricane victims are being relocated.

Mostly, they say, the demand is being fueled by "good people" wanting to protect their families and property. That includes some who might not otherwise purchase such weapons, they add.

Frank Pirie says his Baton Rouge store, Bowie Outfitters, is being inundated by people seeking handguns and shotguns in the storm's aftermath. "It's probably as many as we'd sell in almost a year," he said.

On Wednesday morning he sold handguns to three nurses who were working in downtown New Orleans. Pirie also gave them shooting lessons, he said.

The nurses told Pirie they were "going back into a war zone," he said. "They weren't going back without protection."

But sales are particularly brisk among men and women in Baton Rouge who are growing concerned about a wave of newcomers into their community--most of whom arrive with little more than the clothes on their back.

"They're saying this is racist, ma'am, but that's not true," said Pirie, adding that in recent days he has sold guns to both whites and blacks.

"People are just nervous. There is a certain element that was down in New Orleans that has been displaced." Among the good people, he and others fear, is a criminal element that includes drug dealers who have lost their jobs and people who steal for a living.

The FBI, which conducts criminal background checks on those wanting to buy guns, says it's too early to tell whether a surge in gun sales is taking place in Louisiana or anyplace else. In any case, there is no shortage of homeowners putting up signs that read "Looters will be shot on sight."

On the ground, there is mounting evidence to suggest firearms are a hot commodity. Take the neighborhood surrounding the Astrodome in Houston, where gun stores say they're selling at a brisk pace.

"Basically, what we are seeing is people who are just afraid," said Valde Garcia, manager of Bailey's House of Guns near the Astrodome, where thousands of Katrina's victims have been housed temporarily.

Fear has sparked a demand for firearms among those who might not otherwise want guns, Garcia said, adding that he has sold a dozen guns--mostly handguns--to Houston homeowners who did not know what else to do to ease their fears.

"What we offer is a way for people to protect themselves," he said. "Keep in mind nobody knows who these folks coming into the community are."

Sales up 30%

In Mobile, at the southern Alabama chain of seven pawnshops called Eddie's Wholesale Jewelry, gun sales are up 30 percent in the wake of Katrina because area residents say they want protection from "looters and gang members" who are arriving from New Orleans, according to a chain owner and store clerks.

"Things are crazy," said Josh Collins, 25, a clerk at the Eddie's in Mobile's Critchon neighborhood. "It's just people in time of need.

"There's a lot of gang people from New Orleans. Didn't you hear they're shooting at police [in New Orleans]? The people are coming here. You've just got to be ready, you know," he said.

A favorite handgun is the .38, sold mostly to women, he said. The gun takes five rounds, is easy to load and costs less than $300, he explained.

"It's just for protection. People are trying to steal everything," Collins said.

Race is hot topic

The hot topic of conversation in Eddie's pawnshop Wednesday was the race issue--whether the images of black looters in New Orleans were unfairly casting evacuees from New Orleans as potential criminals in their newly adopted communities.

An owner of the Eddie's chain, Sandra Gillespie, 45, who is white, struck up a conversation with customer Henrietta Brown, 51, who is black, when she entered the store to cash a check. About 55 percent to 60 percent of handgun buyers at the pawnshop are African-American, according to Gillespie and Collins.

"Let me ask you if it's a race issue," Gillespie asked Brown as she walked into the shop.

"No," Brown replied. "They say people are coming over here [from New Orleans] and beating people. I'm scared. It's just a bunch of sorry . . . thugs.

"It's mixed," Brown added. "No, it ain't all black. Don't put it on that," Brown told a reporter visiting the shop.

Brown, a van driver at a day-care center call Kidds Klub Academy, said she already owns a handgun.

"I got it. I'm ready," Brown said. "I'm trying to be nice, but if they come over, it's pow-pow," she said, gesturing as if she were holding a shotgun.

A 20-year-old African-American man, who declined to give his name, walked into a Mobile pawnshop and asked to look at two handguns. The man, who said he was thinking of buying a handgun for his 21st birthday in December, said he believed five evacuees from New Orleans were trying to take over portions of a public housing project and waved guns at him and his friends.

A scuffle ensued, according to the man, who said he and more than a dozen friends overpowered the group from New Orleans.

Larry Anderson, 50, who has run the largest gun store in central Florida for more than 15 years, said he's not surprised by the surge in gun sales across Louisiana and other parts of the South in the last few days.

"Whenever people feel their way of life is being threatened, they are going to go out and buy guns for protection," said Anderson, whose store has an inventory of about 1,500 firearms.

"It happened during 9/11, and it happens just about every time there's a hurricane on the way in Florida too."

When last year's hurricane season was over, he said, gun stores reported sales increases of 20 to 25 percent. That's a banner year by any measure, Anderson said.

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