Following Monday’s executive gun control orders issued by President Barack Obama, questions were raised as to how the order would impact gun sales within the community.

The executive order among other things will require background checks and licensing of dealers for all gun sales whether it is from a store, gun show, the Internet or anywhere. These background checks will be made more efficient and effective by the FBI hiring 230 additional examiners so that checks can be made 24 hours a day seven days a week.

Anyone who ships a firearm must report to law enforcement if the guns do not arrive at their intended location. Also, mental healthcare will be made more accessible and mental health evaluations will be used in the background check process.

“As far as any kind of mental health issues, I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Lacy Gullett of Hobie’s Outdoor Sports said. “You definitely wouldn’t want that person to have access to any kind of firearm, but that is part of the background check already now.”

Gullett said one of the questions on the background check form asks the person purchasing the gun about their mental health history. Even though the purchaser signs their name saying they filled out the form truthfully, she realizes that the gun purchaser could lie about their mental status on the form.

“I’ve never seen anybody say yes,” Gullett said.

Other employees agreed they rarely have background checks denied.

John Coccaro at Hobie’s said this could be because many of the people who try to purchase guns at the store don’t have a criminal record because the purchaser knows they will have to undergo a background check at the store.

Gullett said she didn’t feel like she knew a lot about the executive order specifically, but from what she does know, she doesn’t think it will impact business negatively. If anything, she thinks it will help business.

“It’s not really changing anything we’re doing, just from what I’ve gathered,” Gullett said. “It’s basically what we’re doing already so I don’t think it’s going to effect us that much. The only thing it’s affecting is it’s increasing our gun sales because everybody’s thinking [Obama’s] going to try to end [gun sales].”

She believes that gun violence is because of the person and not the weapon. She said increasing background checks doesn’t change the fact that she doesn’t have control of what the buyer does with the gun after they leave the store.

Gullett and Coccaro both said they were under the impression people who sold guns at gun shows were already required to do background checks, and they don’t think the orders will really impact gun show operation. Coccaro said one of the bigger changes is for private individuals who sell firearms to be licensed and do background checks.

“It seems like that would be very difficult to monitor and enforce,” Coccaro said.

He said currently people who sale guns online cannot ship straight to the customers’ homes and instead send the gun to a federally licensed dealers like Hobie’s where the customer then fills out the background check form.

“From what I’ve seen, I haven’t seen anything that would indicate a change in the way we operate at all,” Coccaro said.

Coccaro said he is not for big government, but he is OK with the idea of hiring more agents to enforce the rules.

“If we could just enforce what already exits, that might help some,” Coccaro said. “But I’m not real sure I found anything in those proposals that would serve the greater purpose of reducing violence.”

Greg Brown, owner of Brown’s Gunsmith, said he missed the president’s speech on Monday, but he has been reading about the executive orders online. He knows his comments may offend some people because they are different than what many would assume.

“This is the only time I’ve ever agreed with Obama, but I’m agreeing with background checks being done,” Brown said. “I can go to a gun show and set up and do it legally by background check.”

He already tracks every gun he ships and has the recipient sign for the shipment because he doesn’t want the firearm to fall into the wrong hands. He said he understands and for the most part agrees with people concerned about Second Amendment rights, but he would prefer felons not have weapons and said a background check helps prevent that from happening.

“It hurts my pocketbook not to make a sale, but I’d rather hurt my pocketbook than have it come back on me,” Brown said.

Brown is more concerned with why prisoners get out of jail before they have served their full sentence, and he thinks more time and energy should be spent on looking into keeping criminals in prison than on gun control.