Gun sales surge in US after shooting

WASHINGTON

A US police officer removes guns during a gun buyback event. Gun sales surged after the Newtown shooting. REUTERS photo

Orders for assault weapons and high-capacity magazines have increased unexpectedly, the world’s largest seller of gun supplies said following calls for stricter weapons laws after the massacre at a Connecticut school.

Pete Brownell, president of Brownells, said that in a three-day period the company had sold an “unprecedented” three-and-a-half years’ worth of inventory of magazines. “We’re working like crazy to get these orders to you as quickly as possible,” said Brownell.

He apologized to customers for the backlog and said the company was manufacturing at 100 percent capacity, and would increase production in coming weeks to meet the massive influx of orders, which could take months to deliver.

Massacre weapon gets ‘unexpected’ demand

The company said it had experienced “unprecedented” demand for AR-15 ammunition magazines in the last three days. The AR-15, a high-powered, semi-automatic rifle, is one of three weapons Newtown, Connecticut shooter Adam Lanza brought into Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. After first killing his mother in their home, 20-year-old Lanza entered Sandy Hook elementary school and killed students, teachers and administrators with gunfire.

The “threat of regulation has dramatically upset the normal flow of production and distribution,” according to Guns.com, and gun enthusiasts are continuing to purchase assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition while they can, according to Huffington Post website.

The most powerful gun lobby in the United States, the National Rifle Association (NRA), has recently pushed for armed guards to be stationed in every U.S. school. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the association said Dec. 21.

2012 record year

2012 was already a record year for gun sales before the Connecticut shooting, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which recorded more than 16.8 million background checks for guns purchased this year.

There were an estimated 310 million non-military firearms in the United States in 2009, roughly one per citizen, and people in America are 20 times more likely to be killed by a gun than someone in another developed country. The United States has suffered an explosion of gun violence over the last three decades including 62 mass shooting incidents since 1982.