Gun owner Mark Smith is not a fan of President Barack Obama's call for tighter gun restrictions.

"I don't like it, period," he said Thursday night as he was heading into Freedom Armory in Shrewsbury Township. "I don't see anything good coming out of this."

The restrictions, Smith said, would only hurt responsible gun owners who follow the law.

On Wednesday, the president unveiled proposals that include passing

universal background checks and bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines he said would curb gun violence.

Smith said the restrictions will not stop someone who wants to use a gun to cause harm.

"If someone wants to hurt someone or many people, they will find a way," he said.

Selling fast: Obama's executive actions were released a month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Since the deadly shooting in December, a West Manchester gun store manager said he's seen an influx of gun sales.

In a matter of three weeks, Deer Valley Sporting Goods sold between 20 and 22 handguns, leaving just one in a display case, said manager Wayne Shuler.

He said the likely cause is the anticipation of a crackdown on guns.

"What it is, is the reaction to the anti-gun explosion," he said.

People are buying guns, and placing orders to restock from gun distributors has become a hassle.

An employee was attempting to reach a distributor via phone Thursday night and couldn't get through.

Emotions, not logic: While sympathetic to the school shooting, Shuler said some of Obama's proposals are the result of emotions brought on by the massacre.

"It's the emotions rather than logic," he said.

But, there are some aspects of the president's actions to which Shuler and Smith are not opposed.

Obama wants Congress to require background checks for all gun buyers in an attempt to close the so-called "gun-show loophole" that allows people to buy guns at trade shows and over the Internet without submitting to background checks.

"The background checks are fine," Smith said.

The White House says nearly 40 percent of gun sales are conducted by private individuals now, exempt from checking the backgrounds of buyers.

Proposed ban: But banning assault rifles might not be the answer, said Chris Johns of Gettysburg.

Johns compared an assault rifle ban to Prohibition in the 1920s and the early part of the 1930s.

People who want a banned gun will find a way to get it.

"I don't think it would keep guns from people who really want to get them," he said.

-- Reach Greg Gross at ggross@yorkdispatch.com.