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AUGUST 3 - AUGUST 9, 2020 | TWO DOLLARS
VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 5
In pandemic, gun sales booming By Bill Thompson Deputy Editor
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Kayakers paddle just off shore where the state has proposed a beach and swimming area near the Glass Bottom Boat dock at Silver Springs State Park in Silver Springs, Fla. on Monday, July 27, 2020. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2020.
Let’s go swimming! State plans to open Silver Springs for swimming
By Brad Rogers Executive Editor
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ilver Springs is finally going to be opened for swimming. That is the word from the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation, under which the Florida Parks Service operated. DEP Press Secretary Weesam Khoury said last week that plans are in the works to open a swimming beach on the spring’s eastern shore, where it was for years before being closed in the 1990s. “The Division of Recreation and Parks is in the process of designing a swimming area and paddle launch at Silver Springs State Park,” Khoury wrote in an email. “This project will include design, permitting, bidding and construction of the two features. Once the design is finalized, we will be happy to provide you a copy. Additionally, there
will be a public meeting to present the design and answer questions.” The idea of a swimming area at Silver Springs has been part of the Silver Springs State Park’s Unit Management Plan almost since the state took over the park in 2013. According to the UMP, which was finalized in 2014: “Research is needed to determine the recreational carrying capacity of the main headspring and river that would allow the maximum level of public access and recreational enjoyment while preventing damage to the river bottom and shoreline, impacts to wildlife or hindrances to wildlife access.” In other words, the park will have swimming, but like many of the Florida Park Service’s other springs, the number of people allowed in the spring at any one time will be limited. In its UMP, DEP noted See Silver Springs, page 3
andy Brygider has been in the gun business for 50 years. And in all that time, he’s never seen a moment like this. “It’s unprecedented,” said Brygider, owner of the Ocala Armory, a gun store on west State Road 40. He was referring to gun sales. Regardless of type of gun, Brygider said, the inventory is “virtually nonexistent.” “There are no more guns to be had,” he said. The same is true of ammunition, he added. “It’s flown off the shelves, and the prices have gone up,” said Brygider. The reason, to him at least is clear: fear. Brygider estimates that 80 percent of his sales have been weapons intended for self-defense, many by firsttime gun buyers. Collectors have purchased the rest and hunters, as of the moment, are not in the market, at least at the Ocala Armory. “People look around and see all the shenanigans going on with these liberal, Democratic-controlled cities and decide they need to protect themselves and their families,” he said. Gun sales are not tracked in America. But there are a couple of rough barometers by which they can be gauged: federal background checks and state concealed-carry license applications. Nationally, FBI background checks related to potential firearms purchases were up 38 percent for the first six months of 2020 compared to the same period last year. The FBI processed 19.2 million requests between Jan. 1 and June 30, which included setting a new monthly record, 3.9 million, in June. The previous monthly record – 3.7 million – had been set in March. See Gun Sales, page 5
Photo courtesy of Florida Memory
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