KTRE.com Lufkin and Nacogdoches |East Texas retailers can't keep guns

East Texas retailers can't keep guns

By Holley Nees - bio | email

"They [are] buying guns because the economy is going down and I think people are just getting worried about it.  And maybe, you know maybe, that's [their] way out of it,"  said a pawn shop customer, Markus Hale.

A concealed handgun license coach said she has seen a large increase in the number of people signing up for concealed handgun classes. 

A Lufkin pawn shop manager said it is a double barreled issue, with the struggling economy and the new administration.

"I think people are scared right now because the way the economy's going and the current presidential change.  It's got a lot of consumers worried about what's happening now or what's happening in the future,"  said Inst-Cash Pawn Store Manager, Jason Ennis. 

He said it is good that they are selling them, but not so great that his customers have very little to choose from.

"We probably had a little bit over a hundred guns last year compared to this year where we only have about 25 or 26,"  said Ennis.

The pawn shop said their gun shelves are never this empty, not even during hunting season.

The pawn shop said although you may not be getting more bang for your buck, people are still willing to shell out the money for a gun.

"I already got a gun," said Hale.

Some pawn shops said people were calling in from as far away as Dallas trying to buy ammunition.