South Carolina’s Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday went off with a bang Friday and Saturday, according to several area gun retailers.

John Phillips, owner of Grady’s Great Outdoors in Anderson, said business at the store during the state’s first-ever tax-free gun weekend has been staggering.

“We had over 100 people waiting when we opened Friday morning. Of those 100, 60 were here to buy (a gun or) guns,” Phillips said from behind the store’s gun counter Saturday afternoon.

In addition to the obvious incentive associated with saving 6 percent on the purchase of a firearm, Phillips said gun owners are scrambling to buy certain types of guns affected by anti-gun legislation many anticipate is on the way.

“Customers are in the market for some of the semiautomatic, high-capacity guns many believe won’t be available in the future,” he said.

Regarding the volume of sales, Phillips said the numbers surprised even him.

“The response has been above and beyond my wildest expectations,” he said, adding that he spent 10 consecutive hours fielding phone calls and doing background checks for gun purchases Friday.

“It was a long day. A good day, but a long day,” he said.

At the J&S Gun Depot in Easley, owner Sheila Fuller worried Friday afternoon that demand was threatening to outstrip her supply of rifles, handguns and shotguns.

“We’ve been wide open. We didn’t open ‘til 10 a.m., and it’s been pretty much nonstop,”

Fuller said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon.

According to her, handguns were the purchase of choice for most of her customers.

“Sales have mostly been handguns, but they’re laying into the ammo and holsters, too,” she said before pointing out that Pickens county residents saved a total of 7 percent at the gun counter.

She also said, “In Pickens, they’re saving seven-percent, and that’s a big lick off the sales price. Running out of stock is a distinct possibility.”

Anderson county gun buyers saw a 6 percent saving.

At White Jones Ace Hardware in Anderson, the doors opened at 7 a.m. Friday morning and they’ve been busy ever since, according to one store employee speaking Friday afternoon.

“They’ve been lined up all day long back at the gun counter,” said the employee, who asked to remain anonymous, Friday afternoon.

As for some area gun buyers, a chance to purchase a gun, or guns, for a discount over-and-above the in-store sale prices already in place is too good to pass up.

Jennifer Holgins, a first-time gun buyer from Liberty, said the tax-free holiday was her chance to purchase a new handgun and a new shotgun.

“I’ve never bought a gun before. I’m here because they’re tax-free, and I can buy them for my husband for Christmas,” she said while standing in one of the several customer lines encroaching on the gun counter at Grady’s.

The 48-hour tax holiday, South Carolina’s first-ever-temporary tax break on guns has received widespread support, and opposition, since it’s adoption by the state Legislature in June.

Republican Gov. Mark Sanford initially vetoed the legislation, first introduced in February, before being passed by legislative override in June.