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9/11 fears trigger interest in guns
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
9/11 fears trigger interest in guns
Area firing range sees more clients; therapy also on more minds
By ELLISON CLARY
Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
Passions drove many people to buy guns after Sept. 11, but pragmatism lured even more to firing ranges to learn how to use them.
Indeed, a blend of emotional tension and rational thinking influenced many to buy weapons, bolster security or seek counseling during the past year -- buoying some area businesses even as the nation struggled to heal from the tragedy and grappled with recession.
At Firepower Inc. in Matthews, firearm sales were up at least 20 percent from last year, until a summer drop-off, but president Steve Woolf said monthly enrollment has doubled for gun-safety classes at his adjacent firing range, where the gender mix is about 50-50.
"I've noticed a group of men who admit they weren't born with the gene that automatically taught them how to use a firearm," Woolf said.
Woolf has noticed an attitudinal change in those who enroll in gun-training classes, which his National Rifle Association-certified instructors teach. The new ethos is, "If I'm going to accept responsibility for a gun, I'm going to learn how to use it," he said.
Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, which maintains its largest domestic presence in Charlotte's Ballantyne area, has seen its security-advising business take off the past year.
Terrorism, global and domestic, is the No. 3 concern among Fortune 1000 companies that Pinkerton recently surveyed, up from No. 17 this time last year, said Len Ford, a Pinkerton sales and marketing executive. Workplace violence is the top concern, and it often overlaps with terror issues, he said.
"We have a healthy business right now," Ford said. Regardless of the economy, businesses don't cut back on security, he added. "We work with a good many Charlotte-based companies."
Meanwhile, by popular demand, owners Blair and Willa Organ of Auto Extras Tint Solutions in Charlotte have added a line of blast-resistant window film to their array of tinting products -- and boosted employment from four to seven. Interest is strong among businesses that have an array of windows facing parking lots, Blair Organ said.
On the emotional front, Ernest Perry of estate jewelry store Perry's At SouthPark is getting more items to sell since the terror strikes, he said.
When folks stayed home last September and October, many eventually rummaged through the attic, Perry said. Around Thanksgiving, they started trooping in with what they found and business has been up about 10 percent since, he said.
"They ran across valuable heirlooms and said, `Maybe we should sell,' " said Perry, who has accepted for sale or consignment items such as diamond solitaires and broaches, some dating to the mid-1800s.
Area recreational vehicle dealers credit a rekindling of family ties for stronger business. Ken Brady, sales manager at Carolina Coach & Camper in Catawba County, said business is up 15 percent from last year.
Brady said Sept. 11 "changed the way people look at life. People want to see this country and they want to participate in seeing it together."
Some Charlotte counselors have seen an uptick in clients concerned about terror.
Pamela Brown, a licensed clinical social worker, said she saw 5 percent to 10 percent more clients immediately after Sept. 11, but that's since retreated.
Many needed help with anxiety about working in high-rise buildings, while some had existing phobias or depression problems that were triggered by terrorism, Brown said. She helped most realize their anxiety was unfounded, she added.
Counselor Vivian Carol has been seeing US Airways workers -- she wouldn't say how many or what they do -- who are concerned about their jobs as well as terrorism. The nation's seventh-largest airline filed for bankruptcy protection in August and many fear job cuts.
Although the events of Sept. 11 occurred on other airlines, "the memory is deeply burned into their minds," she said of her clients. "It's too close to home"
People from other occupations started booking appointments after the first of the year.
"That's when people came out of their shell," she said. "I've seen a steady stream since."
Meanwhile, Larry Hyatt, owner of Hyatt's Gun Shop in Charlotte, said self-protection motivates many of his customers. He said handgun and shotgun sales were a big reason his business was up 20 percent for the year ended June 30.
Figures from the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office show handgun permits countywide for 2001 ran below comparable months in 2000 through September.
Handguns require registration; shot guns and standard rifles do not.
A spike in handgun permits occurred October to December 2001, when the office issued 723 more permits than for the same period in 2000. January 2002 also beat the previous January -- 900 permits to 756 -- but a downward trend resumed in February.
Hyatt believes the sour economy hurt handgun sales the balance of this year, but sales would have been even worse were it not for terror-related fears.
His typical customers this year have been men between ages 30 and 50, and who live in upper-income neighborhoods in southeast Charlotte, Hyatt said. "These are people who have decided, `I need a gun in the house.' Owning a firearm has gotten a little bit more politically correct," he said.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/4017352.htm
Ellison Clary: (704)358-5179 or eclary@charlotteobserver.com
"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
Area firing range sees more clients; therapy also on more minds
By ELLISON CLARY
Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
Passions drove many people to buy guns after Sept. 11, but pragmatism lured even more to firing ranges to learn how to use them.
Indeed, a blend of emotional tension and rational thinking influenced many to buy weapons, bolster security or seek counseling during the past year -- buoying some area businesses even as the nation struggled to heal from the tragedy and grappled with recession.
At Firepower Inc. in Matthews, firearm sales were up at least 20 percent from last year, until a summer drop-off, but president Steve Woolf said monthly enrollment has doubled for gun-safety classes at his adjacent firing range, where the gender mix is about 50-50.
"I've noticed a group of men who admit they weren't born with the gene that automatically taught them how to use a firearm," Woolf said.
Woolf has noticed an attitudinal change in those who enroll in gun-training classes, which his National Rifle Association-certified instructors teach. The new ethos is, "If I'm going to accept responsibility for a gun, I'm going to learn how to use it," he said.
Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, which maintains its largest domestic presence in Charlotte's Ballantyne area, has seen its security-advising business take off the past year.
Terrorism, global and domestic, is the No. 3 concern among Fortune 1000 companies that Pinkerton recently surveyed, up from No. 17 this time last year, said Len Ford, a Pinkerton sales and marketing executive. Workplace violence is the top concern, and it often overlaps with terror issues, he said.
"We have a healthy business right now," Ford said. Regardless of the economy, businesses don't cut back on security, he added. "We work with a good many Charlotte-based companies."
Meanwhile, by popular demand, owners Blair and Willa Organ of Auto Extras Tint Solutions in Charlotte have added a line of blast-resistant window film to their array of tinting products -- and boosted employment from four to seven. Interest is strong among businesses that have an array of windows facing parking lots, Blair Organ said.
On the emotional front, Ernest Perry of estate jewelry store Perry's At SouthPark is getting more items to sell since the terror strikes, he said.
When folks stayed home last September and October, many eventually rummaged through the attic, Perry said. Around Thanksgiving, they started trooping in with what they found and business has been up about 10 percent since, he said.
"They ran across valuable heirlooms and said, `Maybe we should sell,' " said Perry, who has accepted for sale or consignment items such as diamond solitaires and broaches, some dating to the mid-1800s.
Area recreational vehicle dealers credit a rekindling of family ties for stronger business. Ken Brady, sales manager at Carolina Coach & Camper in Catawba County, said business is up 15 percent from last year.
Brady said Sept. 11 "changed the way people look at life. People want to see this country and they want to participate in seeing it together."
Some Charlotte counselors have seen an uptick in clients concerned about terror.
Pamela Brown, a licensed clinical social worker, said she saw 5 percent to 10 percent more clients immediately after Sept. 11, but that's since retreated.
Many needed help with anxiety about working in high-rise buildings, while some had existing phobias or depression problems that were triggered by terrorism, Brown said. She helped most realize their anxiety was unfounded, she added.
Counselor Vivian Carol has been seeing US Airways workers -- she wouldn't say how many or what they do -- who are concerned about their jobs as well as terrorism. The nation's seventh-largest airline filed for bankruptcy protection in August and many fear job cuts.
Although the events of Sept. 11 occurred on other airlines, "the memory is deeply burned into their minds," she said of her clients. "It's too close to home"
People from other occupations started booking appointments after the first of the year.
"That's when people came out of their shell," she said. "I've seen a steady stream since."
Meanwhile, Larry Hyatt, owner of Hyatt's Gun Shop in Charlotte, said self-protection motivates many of his customers. He said handgun and shotgun sales were a big reason his business was up 20 percent for the year ended June 30.
Figures from the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office show handgun permits countywide for 2001 ran below comparable months in 2000 through September.
Handguns require registration; shot guns and standard rifles do not.
A spike in handgun permits occurred October to December 2001, when the office issued 723 more permits than for the same period in 2000. January 2002 also beat the previous January -- 900 permits to 756 -- but a downward trend resumed in February.
Hyatt believes the sour economy hurt handgun sales the balance of this year, but sales would have been even worse were it not for terror-related fears.
His typical customers this year have been men between ages 30 and 50, and who live in upper-income neighborhoods in southeast Charlotte, Hyatt said. "These are people who have decided, `I need a gun in the house.' Owning a firearm has gotten a little bit more politically correct," he said.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/4017352.htm
Ellison Clary: (704)358-5179 or eclary@charlotteobserver.com
"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