
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 12, 1994                   TAG: 9405120165
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RUN ON GUNS

CALL IT the toilet-paper mentality. (You know - the way predictions of snow cause people to rush out and buy more, even if they've already stockpiled a dozen or more rolls on their shelves at home.)

With the House of Representatives' narrow vote last week to ban the sale of 19 makes of assault weapons, gun shops report they've been overwhelmed with customers wanting to buy up the rat-a-tats while they still can.

Many of the panic buyers have been gun collectors - presumably folks who already have an arsenal of firepower on hand.

Others, the gun stores say, are first-time purchasers whose interest has been triggered simply by the fact that the products may soon be hard to come by.

It is ironic, of course, that Washington's efforts to reduce the availability of killer-weapons should cause a boom in their demand. Police officers, for one, aren't laughing about the proliferation of these guns.

But we must strive to look on the bright side. Unwittingly discovered, perhaps, has been a way to increase worldwide demand for made-in-America cars, clothes, toys and other goods.

Let Congress threaten to take them off the market. They'll sell like toilet paper.

by CNB