Over the past three weeks I have gone where no other sane main stream media journalist would ever dare to enter. I have been going into the belly of the beast. I have been visiting local gun shops and shooting ranges in Sarasota County, Florida. What I have found is astounding and, yes, even frightening.

I found white and blue collar workers buying, shooting and learning about rifles, pistols, revolvers and shotguns. I found nice people who were intelligent, peaceful and patriotic. I found families, doctors, lawyers, policemen and veterans. I found small businessmen selling products they cannot get enough of. I found men and even larger numbers of women buying pistols, learning how to fire their weapons, and getting the instruction necessary to apply for a Florida concealed carry permit.

I saw the young and old, rich and not so rich, people of all colors and nationalities in these dens of evil. When walking into these gun shops I saw Mercedes, Lexus, SUVs, trucks and family vans in the parking lots. I saw pictures of guns but even more frightening I saw real guns in cases and people buying them like there was no tomorrow. I even saw, God forbid, NRA logos.

I personally witnessed young women firing all kinds of weapons. This site alone would make any New York Times reporter shudder, feel faint and perhaps even become nauseous.

I talked with one black woman shopping in the Bullet Hole on Main Street in downtown Sarasota. She walked into the gun shop looking for a pistol. I asked her about what she did. She said she had worked in her neighborhood for decades helping her neighbors thru all sorts of difficulties. She mentioned she lived in this downtown neighborhood but never feared for her safety until now. I asked her what kind of pistol she was interested in. She said a .357 magnum but she was not sure she had money to buy a pistol in that caliber but she was going to get a pistol no matter what.

When at the indoor shooting range Take Aim Gun Range on 61^st Street in North Sarasota County, just South of University Parkway, I met a blond woman in her 50s and a black couple with a son in the Army. The young blonde woman was waiting for a shooting class to begin. She said she had just bought a pistol and was taking classes on how to shoot it. She said she lived on Riverview in Sarasota. The black couple had never owned a gun but the husband told me he was ready to buy one for him and his wife.

Recently at a luncheon I had a good friend who is an investment banker say he was buying a gun. He said he had never owned one, never thought of owning one but today thing were different. He was worried and frightened.

All of these local citizens were concerned enough to do something they had never considered – purchasing a firearm. TCPalm.com reports huge administrative backlogs at the Florida Department of Agriculture with 95,000 applications for concealed carry permits awaiting approval. I reported earlier that the State Legislature raided the concealed carry trust fund in order to balance the Florida budget. The NRA has asked members to contact Governor Crist to line item veto this legislation.

I witnessed many young men and women taking classes, people in suits, wearing tee shirts and dress shirts standing two deep at the counters looking at guns of all sorts and calibers. I talked with Don the owner of Take Aim and he said that sales were booming to the point where he cannot get guns and ammunition. He said he has been out of certain calibers of ammunition for months. No matter what he does he can’t get enough products to meet the growing demand for firearms and ammunition.

After living in the belly of the beast for three weeks even I, a neutral journalist, decided it was time to buy a pistol. I highly recommend any Sig Sauer or Walther pistol your local dealer carries. I plan on teaching my wife and grand children the fun and excitement of target shooting. Who knows, perhaps one day one of my grandchildren will be on the American Olympic shooting team.

"Quemadmoeum gladis nemeinum occidit, occidentis telum _est" ("A sword is never a killer, it's a tool in the killer's hands") – Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the younger" ca. (4 BC - 65 AD).