While shoppers in most states were hitting the stores on Black Friday looking for deals on toys and holiday ornaments, one state encouraged gun buyers to stock up last weekend on firearms thanks to a Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday.

South Carolina’s General Assembly approved the “holiday” as part of its state appropriations bill. The 48-hour holiday began a minute after midnight Friday through 12 midnight Saturday, and applied to handguns, rifles, and shotguns, but not ammunition, powder, hunting clothes or gun safes. Mail order and Internet sales also qualified.

Gun sales are reportedly up this year amid fears over economic troubles leading to increased crime, and concerns that the Democrats in Washington are eager to take away everybody’s guns. The sales tax holiday may have helped stimulate the economy for gun dealers, but it's not likely to have made up for South Carolina’s budget deficit, or helped make the state a much safer place to live.