{"id":35553,"date":"2013-04-09T05:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35553"},"modified":"2013-04-07T08:21:59","modified_gmt":"2013-04-07T13:21:59","slug":"attention-representatives-paymar-and-martens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=35553","title":{"rendered":"Attention Representatives Paymar And Martens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suck it<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The St. Paul-based outdoor goods chain already has 11 Gander Mountain locations across the state — all of which sell guns — but its store in the western Twin Cities suburb will have strictly a firearms emphasis. The company boasts it is “the nation’s leading firearms retailer.”<\/p>\n

The 30,000-square-foot Rogers location — formerly a Best Buy — will have its official grand-opening in May.<\/p>\n

“The new Firearms Super Center concentrates on firearms, ammunition, hunting and tactical clothing,” said Steve Uline, Gander Mountain’s executive vice president of marketing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Watch for a bill in the next session banning gun stores larger than 1,500 square feet – and a\u00a0Star\/Tribune<\/em> Minnesota\u00a0poll saying 90% of Minnesotans disapprove of big gun stores.<\/p>\n

More below the jump.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s the market, of course:<\/p>\n

In the past few years, Gander Mountain has significantly expanded its firearm offerings, both at its remodeled big-box stores and with its new Firearms Super Centers. The company said the store was planned well before the gun debate exploded nationwide following the Newtown school shooting.<\/p>\n

“We debuted this concept in Germantown, Wis., in November 2011, so this is not necessarily a new thing nationwide, but it’s new to Minnesota, and there’s no real correlation to current events,” said Jess Myers, a spokesman for Gander Mountain.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Uline cited three factors that are fueling firearm and ammunition sales.<\/p>\n

“We’re all seeing a high demand for firearms and ammunition and it’s driven by the political environment,” he said. There’s also a strong interest “driven by home defense,” Uline said, as well as the growing popularity of “shooting for enjoyment” at shooting ranges.<\/p>\n

Rogers is already home to a rival Cabela’s store, but the location along I-94 was nevertheless attractive, Uline said..<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Look for Representative Heather Martens to predict an epic crime wave in the northwest exurbs in the next year or so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suck it: The St. Paul-based outdoor goods chain already has 11 Gander Mountain locations across the state — all of which sell guns — but its store in the western Twin Cities suburb will have strictly a firearms emphasis. The company boasts it is “the nation’s leading firearms retailer.” The 30,000-square-foot Rogers location — formerly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy-and-the-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35553"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35615,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35553\/revisions\/35615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}