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Fear spurs surge in gun, alarm sales in BR
Josey1
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Fear spurs surge in gun, alarm sales in BR
By MELISSA MOORE
mmoore@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer
The unsolved slayings of Gina Wilson Green, Charlotte Murray Pace, Christine Moore and Pam Kinamore have sparked surges in gun and alarm sales in Baton Rouge, dealers say.
Police say they believe the same man killed Green, a 41-year-old nurse found strangled in her Stanford Avenue home in September, and Pace, a 22-year-old master's in business administration graduate who was stabbed to death in her Sharlo Avenue town house in May.
The remains of Moore, a 23-year-old LSU graduate student, were found in June near a church on River Road near the East Baton Rouge-Iberville Parish line.
Sheriff's detectives are looking for a white pickup truck believed to belong to the man who cut Pam Kinamore's throat after kidnapping her from her home July 12. The truck was seen exiting Interstate 10 at Whiskey Bay a few hours after Kinamore's disappearance and a nude woman was in the cab of the truck.
The homicides, all women who apparently did nothing to put themselves at risk, have created a climate of fear and panic in the Baton Rouge area.
Gun shops say they can't keep pepper spray or chemical self-defense spray on their shelves.
Dan Calvert at Jim's Firearms said sales of Mace and pepper sprays have been "astronomical" for about a week.
"We get a shipment in every day and sell out every day," Calvert said, explaining that the shop orders 200 or 300 at a time.
Small handgun sales also have increased.
For self-defense weapons, business has probably tripled or quadrupled, Calvert said. He said about 95 percent of self-defense weapon purchasers have been women.
Women seem to prefer smaller weapons, .38-caliber revolvers or compact 9 mm semiautomatic pistols, he said.
Calvert said he's been in the gun business 25 years.
"It's the biggest self-defense spike I've seen," he said. "We've had to put on extra help."
William Saint at Precision Firearms and Indoor Range said gun sales have doubled or tripled from about three or four a day to six or eight a day.
Saint said the spike in sales is "about equivalent to Sept. 11."
He said even "people who are opposed to guns" have been in to buy them.
Dan Reynerson of Reynerson's Gunsmith Service said he thinks the increase in his business is sad.
"These women are so scared," he said. "They're at our counter, and tears come to their eyes. It shouldn't be like that."
Reynerson said his shop also has been selling a lot of chemical self-defense spray that contains pepper, chemical gas and ultraviolet dye.
"We recommend they practice with it too," he said.
Pepper spray should be tested once a month or so to make sure it's still working properly and to make sure the person carrying it knows how to use it, Reynerson said.
Reynerson said there's a lot to think about when considering whether to buy a gun.
"If you carry a gun, are you prepared for what happens if you have to use it?" he said.
Reynerson said that when a woman wants a gun, he usually recommends a lightweight revolver, a .22-caliber, .22-caliber Magnum or a .38-caliber.
They are simple and reliable, he said. He's carried the same .38-caliber revolver for years.
No matter what gun someone chooses, practice is critical. "You have to know how to use it under stressful conditions," he said.
Calvert said anyone considering a gun purchase should think about how they will keep the gun away from children, if there are children living with the buyer. He uses a small handgun safe that fits on his nightstand and can be opened by pressing a combination of keys on a keypad.
"You can get into it in a second," he said.
Saint said training is crucial for people not familiar with firearms.
"Don't just come and buy a firearm and think that's going to make you safe," he said.
Marla Aucoin, 38, went to a couple of gun stores Wednesday.
She and her husband have guns at home, but she said she wants a small revolver.
"I'm looking for my own gun," she said.
She said she's already taken a concealed handgun course.
The recent killings, she said, "motivated me to do what I've been wanting to do for years."
"I'm not going to be the next victim," she said.
Companies that install and monitor security systems have been as busy as the gun dealers.
Certified Alarm Sales Manager John Hunt said the alarm company business picked up after Pace was slain.
"The calls really increased dramatically at that point," he said.
Hunt said some women are not sleeping at their homes until alarm systems can be installed.
"You can just hear it in their voices. They are really, really really sacred," Hunt said.
Hunt said he's been in the alarm business 12 years.
"I've never seen this kind of panic," he said.
Custom Security System Sales Manager Quentin Gunther said his office usually gets 40 or 50 calls a week. Last week they got 350 to 400, he said.
Registration of alarm systems declined in June compared to May and compared to June of last year, police spokesman Cpl. Don Kelly said.
Anyone in the parish who gets an alarm system, monitored or unmonitored, is required to register the system with city police.
The department got 278 registrations in June, compared to 428 the previous month and 358 in June 2001, Kelly said.
So far in July, 437 alarm systems have been registered. Kelly said that in July of last year, 402 systems were registered.
Kelly said users have 30 days to register their systems, so it's possible that some people who got alarm systems last month have not yet registered them.
Users who don't get their alarm system registrations can be fined.
http://www.theadvocate.com/stories/072502/new_fear001.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By MELISSA MOORE
mmoore@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer
The unsolved slayings of Gina Wilson Green, Charlotte Murray Pace, Christine Moore and Pam Kinamore have sparked surges in gun and alarm sales in Baton Rouge, dealers say.
Police say they believe the same man killed Green, a 41-year-old nurse found strangled in her Stanford Avenue home in September, and Pace, a 22-year-old master's in business administration graduate who was stabbed to death in her Sharlo Avenue town house in May.
The remains of Moore, a 23-year-old LSU graduate student, were found in June near a church on River Road near the East Baton Rouge-Iberville Parish line.
Sheriff's detectives are looking for a white pickup truck believed to belong to the man who cut Pam Kinamore's throat after kidnapping her from her home July 12. The truck was seen exiting Interstate 10 at Whiskey Bay a few hours after Kinamore's disappearance and a nude woman was in the cab of the truck.
The homicides, all women who apparently did nothing to put themselves at risk, have created a climate of fear and panic in the Baton Rouge area.
Gun shops say they can't keep pepper spray or chemical self-defense spray on their shelves.
Dan Calvert at Jim's Firearms said sales of Mace and pepper sprays have been "astronomical" for about a week.
"We get a shipment in every day and sell out every day," Calvert said, explaining that the shop orders 200 or 300 at a time.
Small handgun sales also have increased.
For self-defense weapons, business has probably tripled or quadrupled, Calvert said. He said about 95 percent of self-defense weapon purchasers have been women.
Women seem to prefer smaller weapons, .38-caliber revolvers or compact 9 mm semiautomatic pistols, he said.
Calvert said he's been in the gun business 25 years.
"It's the biggest self-defense spike I've seen," he said. "We've had to put on extra help."
William Saint at Precision Firearms and Indoor Range said gun sales have doubled or tripled from about three or four a day to six or eight a day.
Saint said the spike in sales is "about equivalent to Sept. 11."
He said even "people who are opposed to guns" have been in to buy them.
Dan Reynerson of Reynerson's Gunsmith Service said he thinks the increase in his business is sad.
"These women are so scared," he said. "They're at our counter, and tears come to their eyes. It shouldn't be like that."
Reynerson said his shop also has been selling a lot of chemical self-defense spray that contains pepper, chemical gas and ultraviolet dye.
"We recommend they practice with it too," he said.
Pepper spray should be tested once a month or so to make sure it's still working properly and to make sure the person carrying it knows how to use it, Reynerson said.
Reynerson said there's a lot to think about when considering whether to buy a gun.
"If you carry a gun, are you prepared for what happens if you have to use it?" he said.
Reynerson said that when a woman wants a gun, he usually recommends a lightweight revolver, a .22-caliber, .22-caliber Magnum or a .38-caliber.
They are simple and reliable, he said. He's carried the same .38-caliber revolver for years.
No matter what gun someone chooses, practice is critical. "You have to know how to use it under stressful conditions," he said.
Calvert said anyone considering a gun purchase should think about how they will keep the gun away from children, if there are children living with the buyer. He uses a small handgun safe that fits on his nightstand and can be opened by pressing a combination of keys on a keypad.
"You can get into it in a second," he said.
Saint said training is crucial for people not familiar with firearms.
"Don't just come and buy a firearm and think that's going to make you safe," he said.
Marla Aucoin, 38, went to a couple of gun stores Wednesday.
She and her husband have guns at home, but she said she wants a small revolver.
"I'm looking for my own gun," she said.
She said she's already taken a concealed handgun course.
The recent killings, she said, "motivated me to do what I've been wanting to do for years."
"I'm not going to be the next victim," she said.
Companies that install and monitor security systems have been as busy as the gun dealers.
Certified Alarm Sales Manager John Hunt said the alarm company business picked up after Pace was slain.
"The calls really increased dramatically at that point," he said.
Hunt said some women are not sleeping at their homes until alarm systems can be installed.
"You can just hear it in their voices. They are really, really really sacred," Hunt said.
Hunt said he's been in the alarm business 12 years.
"I've never seen this kind of panic," he said.
Custom Security System Sales Manager Quentin Gunther said his office usually gets 40 or 50 calls a week. Last week they got 350 to 400, he said.
Registration of alarm systems declined in June compared to May and compared to June of last year, police spokesman Cpl. Don Kelly said.
Anyone in the parish who gets an alarm system, monitored or unmonitored, is required to register the system with city police.
The department got 278 registrations in June, compared to 428 the previous month and 358 in June 2001, Kelly said.
So far in July, 437 alarm systems have been registered. Kelly said that in July of last year, 402 systems were registered.
Kelly said users have 30 days to register their systems, so it's possible that some people who got alarm systems last month have not yet registered them.
Users who don't get their alarm system registrations can be fined.
http://www.theadvocate.com/stories/072502/new_fear001.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
The Associated Press
7/25/02 9:39 AM
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The unsolved slayings of four women have sparked surges in gun and alarm sales in Baton Rouge, dealers say.
"It's the biggest self-defense spike I've seen," said Jim Calvert of Jim's Firearms, who has been in the guns business for 25 years. "We've had to put on extra help."
Police say they believe the same man killed Gina Wilson Green, a 41-year-old nurse found strangled in her home in September, and Charlotte Murray Pace, a 22-year-old who was stabbed to death in her town house in May.
The remains of Christine Moore, a 23-year-old graduate student at Louisiana State University, were found in June near a church near the East Baton Rouge-Iberville Parish line.
Sheriff's detectives are looking for a white pickup truck believed to belong to the man who cut Pam Kinamore's throat after kidnapping her from her home July 12. The truck was seen exiting Interstate 10 at Whiskey Bay a few hours after Kinamore's disappearance and a nude woman was in the cab of the truck, authorities said.
Weapons dealers cannot keep pepper spray or chemical self-defense spray on their shelves.
"We get a shipment in every day and sell out every day," said Calvert, who orders 200 or 300 at a time.
Small gun sales also have increased in recent weeks.
For self-defense weapons, business has probably tripled or quadrupled, Calvert said. He said about 95 percent of self-defense weapon buyers have been women. Women seem to prefer smaller weapons, .38-caliber revolvers or compact 9 mm semiautomatic pistols, he said.
William Saint, a dealer with Precision Firearms and Indoor Range, said gun sales have doubled or tripled from about three or four a day to six or eight a day. Saint said the spike in sales is similar to that after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Dan Reynerson of Reynerson's Gunsmith Service said the increase in his business is sad.
"These women are so scared," he said. "They're at our counter, and tears come to their eyes. It shouldn't be like that."
Certified Alarm sales manager John Hunt said the company's business picked up after Pace was slain. Hunt said some women are not sleeping at their homes until alarm systems can be installed.
"You can just hear it in their voices. They are really, really scared," Hunt said.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?n3223_BC_LA--UnsolvedKillings&&news&newsflash-louisiana
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878