Guns and ammo sales spark jobs boom

Guns and ammo are selling briskly these days, and that means weapons makers are hiring. Some manufacturers are scrambling to find enough workers.

Mike Weddle, head of maintenance at Dynamic Research Technologies, an ammunition manufacturer in Albany, Mo., says he is adding 10 new hires to his staff of 35. DRT's machine operators make between $10 and $17 an hour -- a healthy paycheck in a region where it's tough to find a job and the cost of living is relatively low.

DRT currently cranks out 80,000 bullets per shift and operates two shifts per day. But that's not enough to meet demand. So Weddle is adding a third manufacturing shift and building an additional facility.

"Demand picked up a year ago -- it quadrupled," he said. "It just went crazy." He says .223 caliber ammo, which is for semiautomatic rifles, is particularly difficult to keep in stock. Read more >>

Gun stores report brisk business after Conn. massacre

Although national firearms sales and data on FBI background checks are not immediately available for the days before and after the second-largest school shooting in U.S. history, there is evidence that firearms sales are moving at a brisk pace.

Some gun dealers in Oregon, Virginia and Texas said Monday that stocks of handguns and shotguns were selling quickly.

"Our sales are astronomical,'' said Karl Durkheimer, owner of Northwest Armory in Portland, Ore. "We have customers coming in who are very worried for their personal safety. There is no question that sales are related'' to Friday's shooting, which left 28 dead including the 20-year-old shooter and his mother, and last week's deadly shooting at a Portland-area shopping mall. Read more >>

Protester With A Gun At Obama Town Hall Meeting

Video from NBC News caught this protester with a hand gun strapped to his leg, waiting for President Obama to Arrive in Portsmouth NH. Secret Service plant, no doubt. Better yet, a presidential/democratic orchestrated PR campaign to discredit protesters.