Gun dealers predict conservative landslide
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The final week of campaigning has begun in the US mid-term elections and Republicans appear confident of victory.
The fallout from the United States recession appears to be tipping the race against the Democrats.
At a gun show in Allentown, there are dozens of dealers, and hundreds of weapons for sale. A Glock 9mm costs $US499, and a Smith and Wesson 9mm is $US340, but dealer Dave Zeller says business has been slow.
"This past year, I think the bad economy finally caught up to the firearms business," he said.
"I think it's not a secret that since Obama got elected, he did more for gun sales the year after he got elected than any good gun salesman out there, and that's just a fact."
He says business went up "a considerable amount" in that time.
"But since then, it's sort of like a rollercoaster ride, that's how I describe it to a lot of people," he said.
"When you first get on a rollercoaster it keeps going up, and going up, and going up, and going up, but then it goes down real fast.
"That's what occurred this year. This past summer has been absolutely the slowest since I've been in business."
He says people who have lost their jobs are selling their guns back to him, and his more affluent customers are not buying either.
Another dealer at the show, Edward Kennedy, says he has also experienced a drop in sales.
"It's definitely the economy," he said.
"People come in now, and they'll look at something, and say, well, I think I'm going to wait 'til after Christmas.
"I want to make sure what my Christmas bills are going to be, what my heating bills are going to be, before I put money out on a gun.
"Guns are the first thing people sell, and the last thing they buy."
He says it makes business difficult.
"But we've been in this a long time, and we rode out the good times and bad before, so we'll survive," he said.
Elections loom
Mr Zeller is hoping business will pick up after next week's midterm congressional elections.
"I am very political. I am conservative. I tell people if you get to Rush Limbaugh and then turn right, that's where I'm at," he said.
He says having Republicans back in control of at least the House of Representatives could bring some much needed change.
"If you look at what the Democrats have done in the last, what, year and a half or so - billions and billions of dollars in spending, and what? Unemployment's gone up, and they've not really created any type of new jobs," he said.
"The stimulus didn't do anything except make the matters worse. We have more debt now than we did previously, and I hope that the elections will start to turn."
When Barack Obama was running for president, he caused a stir here in Pennsylvania with some comments he made about working-class voters in old industrial towns.
He accused them of being bitter and clinging to their guns or religion, comments that were seized upon by his then rival, Hillary Clinton.
She won the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, although Mr Obama went on to win this state against his Republican presidential rival, John McCain.
Since then, the political mood in the US has changed.
Landslide predicted
Robert Sarp, the Pennsylvania recruiter for the National Rifle Association, says Democrats are facing defeat at next week's midterm elections.
"I think there's going to be a pretty overwhelming sweep here of liberals from office, because they keep spending money they don't have to spend, and that's got to stop, and people are now finally realising that," he said.
But he believes the landslide will be conservative, rather than strictly Republican.
"I think you have two definite fields of thought here," he said.
"It's either liberal, pretty much, or conservative. There's not much moderation, much, any more.
"And I think that people woke up, they didn't realise what the change was. Now they're starting to see."
He scoffs when I ask if President Barack Obama will be re-elected in 2012.
"Absolutely not. There's only one way he could be re-elected: if he completely legalises all the illegal immigrants in this country. That might be enough votes to push him over," he said.
"Obama is a fool. He's a buffoon, he's an idiot, he's a puppet. He was put into power, and he's done everything he can to bring about a socialist agenda. He's a Marxist. That's the way he was raised.
"All those young voters that voted for him, all the college students that brought about this change, well, they realised that this isn't the change that they were sold ... they're not going to vote for him again."
Pennsylvania is one of the crucial swing states that helps decide the presidential race.
At this gun show no-one admitted to having voted for Barack Obama, and certainly no-one said they were planning to do that next time.
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