Encouraging news from Pennsylvania

From the Bucks County Courier Times:

Call it an interest in hunting, sport or a push for protection. Whatever the reason, Bucks County has been the second-highest seller of handguns in the state for the last three years.

'There are more and more people - and I've noticed younger people - that are getting interested in weapons,' firearms specialist Michele James said, '... as scary as it may seem.'

Bucks County outsold 66 other counties - including Philadelphia - to claim the second-highest rank in the state during the past three years. Only Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, had more handgun sales, according to the Pennsylvania State Police.

James, who works in the Bucks County Sheriff's Office, said she believes changes in society, like the threat of terrorism, are making people consider buying and carrying handguns.

'I really do believe society is the reason gun sales are up,' James said. 'Probably, about 40 percent of people [in Bucks] have licenses to carry ... and I can almost guarantee that about 70 percent of people have a gun in their home.'

But they aren't using them to commit crimes in Bucks, according to District Attorney Diane Gibbons.

The DA said she doesn't see a correlation with gun sales here and crime.

The gun dealer saying that everyone should have training before they are allowed to buy a gun makes me a little uneasy, but I can see his point. He didn't say anything about licensing, just training. So many people these days get all their gun knowledge from TV and movies, that when they do make the decision to buy a gun, they probably do need some real training.