Amid economic troubles and uncertainty over gun laws after President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated in January, one thing is clear: Gun sales are going up.
Gun sales in the months of January to September rose 9 percent in 2008 compared with last year, according to FBI statistics.
Philadelphia Police say the number of gun-related incidents in the city is also on the rise, though some researchers say the statistics don't necessarily indicate a cause for alarm.
Gary Kleck, a researcher at Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, said the rate of applications for guns - the way gun sales are measured - tends to see 3-percent increases or decreases in any given year.
This year's increase is "modestly larger," he said - and can be attributed to factors like the economic crisis and fears of greater gun control during an Obama presidency.
Kleck said a similar surge in gun purchases occurred in 1993, when fears of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban drove gun owners to stock up while they still could.
"Even though [the ban] hadn't been passed yet, people were clearing off the shelves in gun stores," he said, due mostly to the uncertainty about the future provided by the bill's proposal.
He said that while this data is too old to be conclusively a result of Obama's election, fears of his actions as president may be driving people to purchase more guns now.
"You will probably see a mini version of 1993 again," he said. "The more realistic an Obama victory became, the more it was going to stimulate handgun sales."
Looking forward, Kleck said, whether the trend continues depends on how Obama's gun control plans are outlined in the coming weeks and months.
Gun-sales statistics for the city of Philadelphia are not available, but according to Lt. Frank Vanore, a Philadelphia Police spokesman, the number of gun-related incidents increased this year.
Thus far, 3,537 guns have been seized in the city this year. Vanore did not have an exact number of similar incidents in 2007 but said this year's number is up "slightly" from last year.
Of these guns, Vanore said, "many are going to legitimate people, but many are not."
"They are purchased legitimately and wind up the hands of the wrong people," he said.
In terms of criminal activity, Kleck said the jump in gun sales is most likely nothing to worry about.
Because the people reported in these statistics have applied to buy a gun and willingly submitted to a background check, he said, the majority probably aren't criminals.
"If criminals were getting guns, it wouldn't show up in these figures," he said. "It doesn't really indicate a flow of guns directly into the criminals' hands."
