Gun Control Laws Push Gun Sales Up, Gun Shortage in Some Stores, Bushmaster Rifle in High Demand

Gun stores are reporting shortages of firearms as sales increase ahead of impending gun control legislation working its way through Congress.

"The United States appears to be experiencing a rec­ord run on military-style assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and some kinds of ammunition as buyers deluge stores in search of guns and bullets they fear will be banned by the Obama administration, according to firearms industry executives and market analysts," reported the Washington Post.

Especially popular is the Bushmaster .223 semiautomatic rifle, the kind of gun used by the killer in the Sandy Hook Elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn.

Assault weapons now have a year-long waiting period, not because of any legislation, but because suppliers can't keep up with demand. Prices for semiautomatics have doubled.

"Certain locations are even running out of certain guns, and suppliers can't fulfill demand," said Nima Samadi, a gun industry analyst.

"My shelves are bare," said Donel Dover, store manager of Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Va. "Some distributors have told us it will be six or seven months before they fill orders and that's only going to get worse."

Last year saw an 8.2 percent increase in gun sales over the previous year.

"2012 was a year of unparalleled growth and success for the firearms industry and its law-abiding customers," said Stephen L. Sanetti, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation in Newtown.

Demand is being driven by apocalyptic rhetoric from gun control opponents.

"The main goal of the gun banners in Congress is not to make schools safer, but to ban your guns and abolish every last sacred right you have under the Second Amendment until they reduce your freedom to ashes," said the National Rifle Association in a statement.

But some administration officials say one of the purposes of the rhetoric is to drive demand for guns up.

One official, who didn't want to be named, said to the Washington Post, "If people think Twinkies are going out of business, they're going to buy Twinkies."