Firearms license applications and firearms sales are on the rise across the country and in Indiana and, according to gun retailers, it’s being sparked by fear of government control.

Steve Long of Eagle Creek Firearms LLC, Argonne Road in Warsaw, said guns are “flying off the shelves. If (people) come in, they buy something. They’re buying handguns, ammo, shotguns, anything they can find … they’re afraid Obama’s going to take our guns.”

Art Carboneau of Syracuse Hardware, Main Street in Syracuse, agrees that gun sales are being driven by fear. Gun sales began spiking at Syracuse Hardware “the day after the election,” Carboneau said. “They’re scared the government’s going to take the guns.”

Long said many customers to Eagle Creek Firearms are looking for AR15 rifles, which he says are impossible to find now. “After that, they move down the list to shotguns, home defense guns, higher capacity guns.”

In Syracuse, mostly handguns and a few long guns are the biggest sellers, along with brisk sales of ammunition. Compared to last year, according to Carboneau, gun sales have more than doubled.

While the recent school shootings in Connecticut have prompted some sales, Long noted, “It’s not necessarily because of what happened but because of how the government is reacting.”

Due to the high volume of sales, gun dealers are having a tough time keeping guns in stock. Carboneau explained, “The only way we can get them now is on allocation … the holidays have slowed things down with the shipping so it won’t be till after the first of year before we get more in.”

In conjunction with gun sales, firearms license applications are also skyrocketing. Long said in Indiana that may be because the state currently offers a lifetime license, ” … but they are talking about doing away with that so firearms dealers are telling people to get it now.”

The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department has seen a steady increase in applications for the Indiana personal protection handgun permit. Sgt. Chad Hill, public information officer for the department, said, “The sequential waves of applicants have arrived shortly after both the November presidential election and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Although exact applicant numbers are not logged at KCSD since the process is under the direction of the Indiana State Police Firearms Section, the increase of local citizens is quite prevalent.”

Hill stressed that before residents can complete the application process locally, however, they must first fill out an online form at Aries.in.gov/Firearms/Permit/aspx. After the online part is complete, applicants have 30 days to go to their local law enforcement agency to submit fingerprints and the licensing fees.

“Citizens should also be aware that there is sometimes a lengthy delay before the final handgun permit is actually received from the state firearms section,” added Hill.

According to the Indiana State Police firearms licensing division, permits mailed in by local law enforcement agencies are taking approximately 8 weeks to be completed. Citizens can elect to submit electronic fingerprints by setting up appointment through www.in.gov, however, due to the volume of applicants, those appointments are now being booked as much as 13 weeks out.

Although there is no true record of gun sales according to the FBI, in Indiana, as of Nov. 30, the FBI performed criminal background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System on 404,259 people applying to purchase firearms. That is a 12 percent increase over last year.

Nationwide the FBI has fielded 16.7 million queries so far this year, which is the highest number of annual screenings performed since 1998 when the checks went into effect.

According to Long, however, the last time firearms retailers saw such a spike in sales was when Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act in 1993. This time around, he said sales began to spike around the last presidential debate “when both Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney said they would support a ban on assault rifles. After the election it really amped up. It’s almost stupid.”