Abhinav triggers gun craze in Punjab

Posted on August 14, 2008 0 Comments965

Call it the Abhinav Effect. In the 24 hours since the shooter shot for gold at the Beijing Olympics, 65 air rifles have flown off shelves from just one shop in Chandigarh.

Fresh orders have been placed for 50 more and there has been, according to happy faced attendants at Ahuja Arms Company, telephone queries from about three dozen anxious parents, excited children tugging at their sleeves for the latest must-have.

“Our stock has exhausted,” said a beaming Ravi Ahuja from Ahuja Arms Company, the region’s sole distributor of air rifles recommended for shooting.

“Last Friday we received 68 pieces of such rifles from Ahmedabad but with Abhinav winning gold, we have already sold 65. We anticipate a huge interest in the sport. In 2007, we sold close to 1,000 rifles. This year till July 31 we sold 400, but in the four months from now we are looking at about 2,000.”

Attending back-to-back calls Ravi Ahuja, who is also general secretary of Chandigarh Arms Dealers Association, added,  “The phones haven’t stopped ringing. Right from dealers to individual buyers the queries are piling up. Dealers are calling up from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and are demanding rifles in a big way. Now we have placed bulk orders with an Ahmedabad-based manufacturing unit to supply us more rifles.”

Overnight the local boy’s win, India’s first individual gold in 112 years, seems to have woken up an entire region, maybe even the whole country, to shooting

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