Gun Owners Fear New Restrictions - WLTZ 38 | Columbus Georgia Regional News & Community

By Joe Johns (CNN)-
People are racing to buy the weapons they fear they one day might not be able to get.
"We've probably seen, I would say, at least a 50 percent increase in sales, our assault rifles, ARs, AKs have all doubled in sales."

Meanwhile over at the White House,, the administration  is looking to a working group led by vice president Biden to come up better ideas to reduce crimes committed with guns.  
"You have a much more holistic view of how to deal with violence on our streets and in our country."

Officials who were inside the first working group meeting describe it as a brainstorming session that went far  beyond  talk of  renewing the  so-called  assault weapons ban  that was enacted during the Clinton Administration. The officials said they talked about  
*Banning high capacity magazines
*Improving mental health checks for people who are purchasing weapons
*Bolstering the federal background check system for gun purchasers including closing the loophole that allows many purchasers at gun shows to avoid background checks altogether.  
*National gun registry
*Improving tracking of ammunition sales 

Dan gross, who is president of the Brady campaign to prevent gun violence, has had Conversations with the White House. "I would be fairly confident that the task force is based on what the President has been saying alone that the task force is committed to exploring more broad solutions than just an assault weapons ban."

On Capitol Hill, some of the ideas go even further. The Democratic senators from New York want tough new gun trafficking laws.
"We have thousands of laws but effectively none of them are focused on someone from Virginia from driving up to NYC parking their car in a parking lot and selling illegal firearms out of the back of his truck to criminals."

But the question is whether advocates of gun rights on the hill and the voters who sent them to Congress will stand for it. "I don't think the federal government has any business of having a list of law-abiding citizens who choose to their right to keep and bear arms."
And the top Republican in the senate points out that the Congress already has a full agenda to last well into the new year. "Clearly, we will not be addressing that issue early because spending and debt are going to dominate the first three months."

But there seems to be a middle ground. There are some gun owners who say certain people should not have guns. "I'm all for trying to weed out the individuals that shouldn't have them that make the rest of us look bad. And I'm definitely for that. But in the same sense I don't think we should just you know ban everybody from owning a specific type of firearm."
 
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg weighed in on the  issue calling for across the board criminal background checks for gun sales. Bloomberg says there's a loophole because right now background check laws only apply to gun dealers, not to guns sold over the Internet or at gun shows.