Locals execute their right to bear arms

• Johanning

Pawn It owner Vance Johanning stands in front of his dewindling stock of firearms at the store in Worthington.

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — Pawn It in Worthington has a waiting list of people wanting to purchase a black gun — the AR-15 and others like it that are capable of firing in quick succession.

Owner Vance Johanning said business has been booming since a shooter went on a rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 children and six adults before killing himself.

“It’s definitely been a lot of people coming in and looking for firearms that never came in before,” Johanning said of his shop, which has sold firearms nearly since opening in the community 18 years ago. Customers are also looking for ammunition, he said.

While Johanning speculates the spike in sales is because people want them for personal protection, another local gun dealer, Daryl Behrends, said people are concerned they may not be able to buy certain assault-type weapons in the future.

“The demand has increased and I’m not surprised,” said Behrends, of Wilmont. “It’s happened before.

“We may not be able to get them later on; that’s pretty much why (sales have increased),” he added. “You just never know what tomorrow brings.”

Both Johanning and Behrends have seen a dramatic increase in requests for the AR-15, a civilian-modified M16 that is considered a modern sporting rifle, as well as high-capacity handguns in the three weeks since the Connecticut shooting.

In fact, Johanning said sales of the weapons are up by well over 50 percent — so much so that he’s sold out of certain assault-type rifles and is waiting on manufacturers to fill orders he’s taken.

“For what everybody’s looking for, it’s (the market) pretty much dried up through the distribution channels” he said. “We’re just waiting on the manufacturers to produce them — the AR rifles — to get them back into the system. We’ve got stuff ordered. We’ve started a waiting list.”

There’s a bit of a misnomer in the public when it comes to the AR-15. According to local outdoorsman Scott Rall, the firearm is not considered an automatic rifle as the letters AR might imply.

“It only shoots one shot per trigger,” Rall said. “Fully automatic weapons have been outlawed since 1968, but people that are for more gun control call that an assault rifle.”

Behrends said the AR-15 and similar models are, 90 percent of the time, used for hunting in this area.

“They’re very nice for fox and coyote. Because of running shots, you may not hit them the first two or three shots,” he said. “It’s a fun weapon to enjoy. Just because it’s black doesn’t mean it’s mean.”

Behrends has had his federal firearms license for about 33 years and said this isn’t the first time he’s seen a spike in demand for guns.

“I saw it four years ago,” he said, confirming that people feared gun control legislation would be forthcoming when President Barack Obama first took office.

“There was a wild fury at that time,” Behrends said. “Then it leveled out, and now it’s back again.”

All firearms dealers are required to complete a federal background check on a person wishing to purchase a firearm.

“To purchase a black gun in Minnesota, you have to have a purchase permit,” said Behrends. “Otherwise, you have a seven-day waiting period.

“If they have a purchase or carry permit (issued by law enforcement), they can take it with them right away, if they pass the background check,” he added.

The background check can be done over the phone in as little as three minutes, or take as long as three days, Johanning said.

With such a rush to purchase firearms, he’s experienced delays in the process in recent weeks — once being placed on hold for a couple of hours.

Permit requests spike after Sandy Hook

Within the first week after the school massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, Nobles County Sheriff Kent Wilkening saw a run on requests for gun permits — 26 or 28 permits — which, he said, is “quite a bit for us.” He recalled a similar scenario following the mass shooting that left 12 people dead and 58 injured in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., on July 20, 2012.

The sheriff’s office doesn’t ask people why they want a permit, but Wilkening speculates it’s because they are concerned about changes in gun ownership laws.

“Some of them are just worried that Congress is going to try and do something with gun control and maybe make it a little harder for them to buy weapons,” he said. “People are trying to get these weapons that they’ve maybe wanted for a while and they’re going to get them now, while they feel they still can.”

The process of obtaining a gun permit to purchase is relatively simple. People need to complete an application available through the law enforcement office and submit to a background check.

“For the permit to purchase, they do not have to have any training,” Wilkening said. “They have to fill out an application, and we do a background check on them. If they do OK, we issue a card that says they passed the background check.”

Still, Wilkening hopes gun buyers know how to take care of the firearm and safely store it.

“That’s the biggest thing, that they know how to store it and keep it out of their children’s hands or grandchildren,” he said.

Gun control and the sportsman

Rall, who refers to himself as a “die-hard Second Amendment guy,” said hunters would support any form of gun control that would take guns out of the hands of criminals.

“But, if you put a ban on AR-15s, that will keep Scott Rall from getting one, but do you really think that would keep any other shooter from getting one? They don’t go to a pawn shop or a federally licensed firearm dealer — they go to the street corner.

“That’s where most shooters have a problem with gun control,” he added. “It doesn’t control that hardened criminal or the mentally insane person who’s going to go out and do damage.”

Rall said there are millions of AR-15s on the streets today. The same goes for AK-47s.

“Gun laws and more gun control generally add restrictions to the types of people that don’t cause problems anyway,” he added.

Rall, who once owned an AR-15 but sold it years ago, said he understands why people want them. While the gun may be “heavy and kind of clunky,” the .223-caliber weapon is military-caliber, and ammunition is mass produced.

“Ammo for a .223 is far cheaper than for any other caliber,” he said. “There’s so much volume because the military uses it, so it’s much cheaper.”

Cheaper ammo appeals to gun owners, some of whom may just use the weapons for target practice.

Law changes may have little impact

During the Clinton Administration, stricter gun control was implemented, but Rall said all it really did was limit magazine size to 10 rounds and prohibit flash suppressors, the piece of pipe welded over the gun barrel to limit the amount of light emitted when a weapon is fired at night.

“If they (reinstate) the AR ban exactly as it was before, you can still buy an AR-15, you just won’t be able to buy more than a 10-round clip or a gun with a flash suppressor,” Rall said. “If they reinstate, it’s a zero net (change), but if they add a whole bunch of additional guns to that list, that’s going to get a whole lot of people worked up.

“People who want gun control wish every gun was gone — even shotguns,” he explained. “Most everybody agrees that restricting law abiding gun owners is not going to restrict hardened criminals.”

“The laws work,” added Johanning. “There’s going to be a crackpot in any group of people.”

“The people that want these (weapons), they’ll find a way to get them,” Wilkening said. “I don’t think putting a total ban on assault weapons is going to solve the problem. The people that are going to do things illegal with them are probably going to get them.

“The bigger issue is that in eight of the last nine shootings around the country, most of these people have had a mental health issue,” he added. “That’s probably one of the bigger issues we need to look at — get more involved and get them more help — cut them off before these things happen.”

Daily Globe Reporter Julie Buntjer may be reached at 376-7330.

Tags: news, worthington, politics, guns