Page 25 - 914INC Q2 - 2016

Trending
Bullet Points
Gun sales are up around the nation—and in Westchester. Local firearms
ealers tell us what’s behind the boom. By Nick Brandi
oreign and domestic terrorism. tions at his store are up approximately
Sales
Word Wars
Westchester booksellers benefit from uptick in physical book sales.
By Paul Adler
Last year, for the
first time since
Amazon’s Kindle
hit the market near-
ly a decade ago, phys-
ical book sales rose
as sales of e-books
slumped. This unexpect-
ed boom means growing rev-
enue for Westchester’s own
booksellers, each of whom has a theory on just why paper books have been raking in so much paper lately:
“When it comes to e-readers, the luster is a bit off the rose, and more people are finding that they like reading an actual book. It doesn’t mean they are going to give up their e-readers, but certain books they want to have, touch, feel, and read.”
–Eugene Sgarlata, owner, Womrath’s Book Shop, Bronxville
dF
25 percent and 20 percent, respectively— points out there are many factors other than politics that are stimulating a height- ened interest in gun ownership. “The ef- fect of the shootings in places like San Bernadino, Paris, and Newtown cannot be overstated,” Timlin says, adding that natural disasters like Katrina and Sandy also have a discernible impact on sales. He further points to “the immediacy and sophistication of social media, which have transformed what used to be regional sto- ries into global ones.”
And it’s not just men who are increas- ingly looking to pack some heat. “By far, the fastest-growing demographic is women,” says Rosenshine, whose wife, Dawn, is an instructor at Blueline. “Women ages 25 to 45 are where most of the new [sales] activity is occurring,” adds Timlin, “and it’s married women just as much as single women.”
“Women these days don’t feel en- tirely comfortable relying on a man, the government, the police, or anyone else to protect them in this increasingly danger- ous world,” says Caren Landis, a retired schoolteacher from Clarkstown and avid gun-rights advocate.
Meanwhile, Rosenshine advises Westchesterites looking to purchase hand- guns to be patient, as there are only four law-enforcement officers in the county currently processing pistol-permit appli- cations, so waiting times are close to a year.
So, what are people buying? Timlin (whose wife, Denine, also partners with him at RT) says the best sellers are de- fensive shotguns (which feature a shorter barrel), conventional 9mm and .45 caliber 1911 handguns (especially Rugers, Glocks, and Smith & Wessons), and pocket pistols, which offer the stopping power of larger handguns but are more easily concealed.
“But make no mistake, what’s been driving people into the store the past few years are the assault rifles,” says Timlin, “but the laws that have been put in place by federal, state and local government drive them back out again, as it’s almost impossible to buy a tradi- tional AR at this point.”
Natural disasters. Deranged assail- ants. Embattled police. Pandering politicians. Increased gun restric- tions. All of these have been cited as key reasons that Americans are seek-
ing to arm themselves like never before. “Barack Obama is the best gun salesman this country has ever seen,” asserts Ben Rosenshine, co-owner of Blueline Tactical Supply & Shooting Sports in Elmsford. “Every time the president talks about guns and how to restrict them, we see an uptick in sales and application requests.”
The trend Rosenshine refers to seems to be more than anecdotal. Recent esti- mates cite a 40 percent increase in the le- gal sale of handguns in New York State in the last five years alone, and Westchester appears to be following suit. “Forty per- cent sounds about right for this area, too,” says Rosenshine, whose gun-safety class- es have seen a more than 50 percent in- crease in enrollment in the past two years. (“We used to have empty seats; now we have waiting lists,” he reports.)
Mike Timlin, proprietor of RT Smoke N Gun Shop in Mount Vernon—who says that in the past three to four years, home- defense shotgun and handgun applica-
BY THE NUMBERS
2.5%
11%
$11.17 billion
rise in physical book sales over 2015
physical book sales in 2015
slump in e-book sales over the same period
$10.89billion physiccaalpbtionotk sales in 2014
2007
last year that book sales rose against e-books
“Sales have been good, and I have been sur- prised how enthusiastic the community has been. So many people come in and say, ‘I am so relieved to just be able to buy a book.’”
–Laura Schaefer, owner, Scattered Books, Chappaqua
“The growth of electronic readers was enor- mous, and it seemed that if things stayed along that curve that physical books were going to disappear. But electronic reading has become more steady, and, as I’ve discovered, there are a lot of people who read both ways.”
–Roy Solomon, owner, The Village Bookstore, Pleasantville
Q2 2016 www.westchestermagazine.com 23