Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 10, 1994                   TAG: 9405100136
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press NOTE: Below
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GUN SALES SKYROCKET BEFORE BAN

Since the House voted Thursday to ban assault-style weapons and their copycats, gun sales have been booming and there's been a corresponding rapid-fire increase in prices.

"Sales have gone through the roof. We've had a run on just about everything that shoots. It's been sort of incredible," said Mike Saporito, senior vice president at RSR Wholesale Guns of Orlando, Fla., which supplies thousands of retail shops.

"They cleaned out warehouse after warehouse after warehouse."

Although price tags vary, the guns on the endangered list are fetching whatever the market will bear. It's a basic law of economics - whatever is in short supply and has a big demand will rise in price.

For example, an AK-47 that sold for about $200 last week has increased 50 percent. And Colt-made AR-15s and Sporter rifles - the civilian version of the military's M-16 infantry weapon - have doubled from about $900, and some shops were asking $2,200, according to Bob Lesmeister of the National Association of Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers.

"People are rushing to get them while they can. The thinking is if they don't get them now, they're never going to get it, that this is their last chance," he said.

Actually, retail shops say the buying frenzy is predictable. The run on guns was triggered late last year when Congress passed the Brady law, requiring a waiting period for handgun buyers.

A second boom came when Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced the ban on assault-style weapons.

The House version approved Thursday is similar to the Senate's, but a conference committee must work out the differences before it gets sent to President Clinton. In addition to 19 weapons and copycat models, each version would ban magazines, or ammunition clips, that hold more than 10 bullets.

Customers say they want the guns for target shooting or as collectors' items.

"In my opinion, Bill and Hillary Clinton and [Attorney General] Janet Reno are the finest gun salesmen in history," said Jim Hullinger, owner of Jim's Military Collectibles in Plano, Texas. "Magazines, ammo and weapons are selling as fast as we can get them in."

The White House pushed for the ban because the guns on the hit list weren't made for hunting. "You don't use these guns in a duck blind," Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said.