POSTED: Friday, January 18, 2013 - 7:48pm
UPDATED: Monday, January 21, 2013 - 11:08am
TYLER, TX (KETK) - — Business is booming at gun shops in East Texas.
When KETK called Noonday Gun Trader the voice message said, “Thank you for calling noonday gun trader, we are not accepting calls at this time due to a high volume of traffic…"
Some gun shops can't even take calls they are so busy, and if you plan on signing up to get your concealed hand gun license, you may have to wait a while.
Robert Quates from Lock n’ Load in Tyler teaches CHL courses, he says, "Right now we have concealed handgun classes and we do them every other Saturday and right now I'm booked all the way until March 30th.” Quates says that’s not the only class filling up. Classes to learn the basics about firearms have been popular too. Quates says, "We've actually increased our intro class I believe we have one every week now we normally have them every two weeks, but the demand of people wanting to learn how to operate a fire arm for the first time in their life has gone up."
Mary Hopkins plans to sign up to get her CHL she says, "My husband has encouraged me to do this, since the Obama administration has decided to make their fairytale world and we just need to protect ourselves so that is basically why I am doing this"
Hopkins is one of many women who are signing up to take the class. John Coblentz teaches CHL classes in Lindale and in Tyler, he says, “We are getting groups of women to call, saying hey we all want to do it now."
Quates says he's seen more teachers sign up too, “We’ve had a lot of teachers come up that are wanting to get their CHL's they do believe that a law will be passed where they will be allowed to carry concealed in schools so a lot of teachers are looking into getting their CHL’s."
The phones have been ringing off the hook at Lock n’ Load and other gun shops around East Texas. And all the owners KETK spoke to say they only expect it to get busier in the coming months.