Stores keeping close eye on gun sales

The Daily Iowan
The Daily Iowan

(U-WIRE) IOWA CITY, Iowa — In response to Tuesday's attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., some local stores say they are keeping a close eye on gun and ammunition sales — at times even preventing those items from being purchased.

"People tend to fear the worst when something like this happens," said Mike Karal, the hunting manager at Fin and Feather. His store did not take any special precautions because of the attacks, though, he said he thought other stores may have done so to avoid panic leading to pandemonium.

Karal has not noticed an increase of gun-buyers but did see an influx of ammunition sales. "A lot of people didn't know what was going to happen and thought that they needed to be armed."

After the attacks on Tuesday, K-Mart stores across the country stopped selling all weapons and

ammunition, said Mark Koellner, manager of the Iowa City K-Mart. 901 Hollywood Blvd.

Corporate officials contacted the local store mid-morning on Tuesday to inform it all K-Marts were not to sell weapons or ammunitions, Koellner said. Corporate officials did not ban any other sales.

Weapons and ammunitions at the store went back on sale Wednesday morning, Koellner said.

The Super Wal-Mart in Coralville, Iowa, did not stop selling guns and ammunition, but it did put additional employees in the store's sporting goods area, said store manager Chad Rainwater.

He said Wal-Mart corporate officials called the store Tuesday and told management officials they needed to either pull weapons from the shelves or put additional staff near the displays.

Some stores made no procedure changes regarding gun and ammunition sales.

Derek Burns, an assistant manager of Scheels All Sports, Coral Ridge Mall, said the store continued to sell guns and ammunitions because management had confidence in the background checks that are conducted with every gun purchase.

Before any gun sale is final, the FBI has to approve the purchase after background checks on the buyer are performed.

Scheels closed early Tuesday, along with the rest of Coral Ridge Mall.

Fin and Feather sold one gun Tuesday, Karal said. The store has not seen many patrons interested in guns in the past two days, he said.

"Everybody has to wake up and face the fact that people don't use firearms for these kinds of things," he said.

Dwight Bode, the owner of the Gilbert Street Pawn Company, 319 S. Gilbert St., said he also did not change his store policy on gun sales. In the past two days, he has not noticed any patrons in his store interested in guns.

The banning of gun and ammunition sales at K-Mart was a little extreme, Bode said.

"The sale of a few handguns won't stop a plane from crashing into a building," he said. "Those who attacked the U.S. didn't change the fabric of society, other than in the places that they attacked."

— Casey Wagner

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