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I am Nick Geranio, owner of Belleplain Supply Gun Center in Bellplain, New Jersey.
I'm Brian Camp. Sales. I sell the guns here, Bellplains Supply Gun Center.
How's business in New Jersey?
Nick: Been pretty brisk. Last four to five years been very very busy.
What are your main guns going out the door?
Nick: Kind of a mix of all of them. Handguns, long guns, we have a very big hunting shop.
We supply hunters that travel all over the world, so we do a lot of sporting arms, handguns
have been very brisk in the past 14, 15 months.
You see a lot of new shooters in the market?
Nick: Yeah.
Brian: Yeah, we see a lot new shooters -- a lot of women. A lot of women now buying guns.
Particularly, from what I see, a lot of young women are purchasing handguns now.
Nick: Yeah, especially the ones living at home or going to college or, you know, just
getting out in the workforce. You know, they want to know how to handle it, parents are
trying -- especially the fathers -- trying to teach them how to use them, you know, protect
themselves. So yeah, we sell a lot of that. And I would say if we had 100 new customers
come through the door, 75 have never owned a firearm in their life in the past year.
You were saying something about Gov. Christi? He supporting you guys?
Nick: Yeah, I think Gov. Christie is a good governor. He's done a pretty good job of supporting
us. We've had some laws come down the road a year ago and he vetoed most of them and
said they weren't common sense laws. Some they did initiate, which they didn't make
a whole lot of difference because they were already on the books anyhow. Most of the lawmakers
really don't know the difference between what's on the books and what's not on the books.
And they keep making a law for another law for another law and it's actually the same
rule. So it really didn't affect us a whole lot.
Everyday there's new legislation coming down the road that needs to be looked at and needs
to be fought. It's a shame that between the citizens of New Jersey, the NRA, and anybody
that likes weapons needs to spend a lot of money to keep defending their rights, but
Christie has been a really good governor in that respect. I don't think he's pro-gun or
against gun, I think he's middle of the road. I think he uses a little bit of common sense
and works with the legislature.
Last question is on the future of guns -- gun sales being in the gun business. You think
it's looking pretty good?
NICK: I think we're gonna have at least three more good years of gun business because the
politics in Washington isn't going to change in the next three years, so once that changes
things could slow down because then it might change the demographics up there or down there
in Washington. Right now, as I see it, I don't think things will slow down a whole lot for
the next three years. The Obama administration probably didn't do a lot for the economy in
a whole lot of places, but he certainly energized the gun business.
BRIAN: It turned a lot of people on to guns. First time shooters they was getting them
for various reasons and it turned a lot of people on to shooting. Now we got families
coming in here. They're buying for their daughter, their son -- everybody is shooting now, having
a good time at it, going out to target range and it's a family affair. And that's been
happening a lot and that's always a good thing.
So if people come down through New Jersey should they stop by your shop and say hi?
NICK: Oh yeah. We have a lot of people come by. Our shop is on the main artery going to
the seashore. There's only two ways to getting to the seashore in Capeman county. One is
through our property, we have a big farm, and the other is through the Garden State
Parkway, so a lot of guys come in, a lot of people from out of state come in. Do we sell
a lot of stuff to out of state? Not really. But if guys do want to buy something or see
something, they can buy it, but they can't take it with them, we have to ship it to their
home state. We ship it to their home dealer and they can go pick it up there. But we do
sell a lot of accessories and a lot of supplies because of the foot traffic coming through.
Well thanks guys, thanks for talking with us today.