Sandy Hook Shooting Sparks Gun Sales Surge
#1
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17...17522.html

Quote:The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. has sparked a surge in gun sales, according to independent arms dealers across the nation.

Robert Caselnova, who owns a Connecticut gun shop located less than 10 minutes from the school, said firearms flew off his shelves over the weekend, with multiple requests for AR-15 style rifles, a weapon Adam Lanza used in the Newtown massacre. Caselnova said he knew the Lanzas and that the mother and son had visited his store in the past, separately, but never made any purchases.

After high-profile shootings, debate over gun control can cause consumer demand for guns to rise, government records have shown. Industry experts say fears that stricter laws will follow such incidents push people to stock up on firearms before regulators can clamp down. But last weekend’s spike in business was unprecedented, gun shop owners in California, Connecticut and North Carolina told HuffPost.

Larry Hyatt, owner of North Carolina-based Hyatt Gun Shop, which claims to be America’s largest independently owned gun store, said he had a line out the door on Saturday, forcing him to call in extra salespeople.

“We already have tons of customers because of Christmas, hunting season is peaking right now, and not to mention, the election,” Hyatt said. “But this tragedy is pushing sales through the roof,” he added. “It’s like putting gasoline on a fire.”

Last weekend’s gun rush caused the federal system that processes background checks for firearm purchases, known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, to experience heavy delays. The FBI, which runs the NICS database, declined to comment on the number of background checks it has received since Friday. But Paul Marquardt, owner of ArmsX, a Connecticut-based gun store near Sandy Hook Elementary, said the wait-time on Saturday for a background check was nearly an hour -- the longest wait-time he’s ever seen.

“The two busiest days I’ve witnessed during my four years in the business,” Marquardt said, “was the day after Obama was elected, and ahead of that, last Saturday.”

The Black Friday after the Nov. 6 election, gun sales across the country broke records, crashing the FBI's background check system, according to The Denver Post.

At Ade's Gun Shop in Orange, Calif., manager Lisa Atkinson said Saturday was the biggest day the shop has ever had, with some $13,000 in sales.

"It was the first time we had to call a nearby gun shop to see if they could sell us a gun because we had run out," Atkinson told The Huffington Post. "It's been crazy."

In Arizona, one-day gun sales jumped 60 percent after a gunman killed six people in a Tuscon parking lot and wounded others, including then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Similarly, in Colorado, after 12 people were killed inside a suburban movie theater in July, background checks for gun purchases reportedly spiked 41 percent. In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, these checks have spiked again, reaching a record-high for the year.

The AR-15 style rifle, a weapon of choice in both the Colorado shooting and last Friday’s shooting in Connecticut, accounted for more than 25 percent of ArmsX’s recent sales, Marquardt said.

Freedom Group, the weapon's manufacturer, reported a 20 percent increase in revenue for the first nine months of this year. “The manufacturers [of the AR-15] can’t keep up with the demand,” Caselnova said.

Not all gun shop owners saw more business over the weekend. Chad Sumner, who works for his family's shooting range and gun shop, Knob Creek Gun Range in West Point, Ky., said the mass shooting did not affect foot traffic, but that the increased talk of an assault weapons ban added an element of uncertainty.

"Another assault weapons ban [would] really limit our sales," he said. "People like the assault weapons. People say they are useless, but so are dragsters. Why do people want to drive a dragster down a drag strip?"

Brandy Liss, owner of the The Arms Room, a shooting range and gun shop in League City, Texas, said she opposed stricter gun laws, noting that Friday's killer had broken dozens of laws during his shooting rampage.

"Most people feel that if teachers had ability to protect themselves, there would have been less casualties," Liss told HuffPost in a phone call on Monday.

Protection and the government's failure to provide it is part of the reason gun sales are rising, Hyatt said, adding that the economic downturn spawned a growing belief among his customers that the U.S. is ill-equipped to safeguard its citizens. “You can’t get enough police to protect us, the jails are full, the mental health system is failing us,” he said. “That’s why more people are buying weapons, to protect themselves and their families.”

Hyatt said he wishes his staff had better information on whether buyers had a history of mental health issues. A 2010 investigation by The Washington Post ranked Hyatt Gun Shop second on a list of American gun dealers that had the most traces for firearms recovered by the police.

“Every gun you sell,” Hyatt added, “you have to worry whether that customer is competent, or whose hands that gun may end up in.”
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#2
I want a concealed carry permit. Living in the big city has reminded me about how unsafe things are and how long it takes for the police to actually respond to anything because they are so busy.

Heck, the traffic laws are loosely enforced around here becaue the cops just don't have the time and they are always flying around- city and chp- code 3.
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#3
Probably not the ad they're currently running, but here's an ad for the AR-15 (at least, that's what the site I got it from claimed).

[Image: yikes.jpg]
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#4
And the other side of the coin. I'm sure the number of guns turned in is nowhere near the increase in the number of guns being purchased, but it's nice to see (for me, anyway).

Quote:Some Are Turning In Their Guns Following Connecticut Shooting

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, some Americans are turning in their guns as part of local government buy-backed programs.

Residents in New York City, New York, Camden, New Jersey, Baltimore, Maryland, and San Francisco, California, sold hundreds of weapons back to the government no-questions asked, with some attributing their decisions to the Connecticut tragedy.

“After the incident yesterday, it was time to get it out of the house,” Sonia White, a 65-year-old Baltimore County grandmother said. A man in San Francisco explained, “I’ve got kids, man.” “Kids are curious. Kids don’t know any better. I had it locked in a toolbox, so I don’t know. … I just know it had to go.”

Following this month’s killings by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, who shot his girlfriend dead and then turned the gun on himself, at least seven NFL players have gotten rid of their personal firearms. One player reportedly turned in multiple weapons to his franchise’s security detail, “telling his team’s personnel that he didn’t trust himself with the guns.”
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/12...-shooting/
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#5
(12-18-2012, 07:29 AM)reelo Wrote: I want a concealed carry permit. Living in the big city has reminded me about how unsafe things are and how long it takes for the police to actually respond to anything because they are so busy.

Hell, if you live in Jo Co the police may never show up. Rolling Eyes
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#6
(12-18-2012, 10:10 AM)Scrapper Wrote:
(12-18-2012, 07:29 AM)reelo Wrote: I want a concealed carry permit. Living in the big city has reminded me about how unsafe things are and how long it takes for the police to actually respond to anything because they are so busy.

Hell, if you live in Jo Co the police may never show up. Rolling Eyes

Could be worse, RG could show up.
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#7
Gun sales have been pretty good the last few days. If I had the stock I probably could have sold 5 AR-15's today...without even trying.
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#8
(12-19-2012, 07:37 PM)cj2112 Wrote: Gun sales have been pretty good the last few days. If I had the stock I probably could have sold 5 AR-15's today...without even trying.

Man what are you talking about. I'm buying up all the video games I can get my hands on. The first admendment is gonna get infringed by the second admendment.
LaPierre nails it, video games and violent films.
No sir I'm hoarding video games. You might want to stock up on movies too.

You'll have to take "left for Dead" out of my cold dead hands. You never get tired of popping heads off.

(satire)
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#9
And (some) people wonder why kids (young adults) have no trouble shooting up schools, theaters, malls etc.

Left 4 Dead Gameplay:


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#10
It may desensitize them, but violence has actually decreased as video game sales have risen.
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#11
(12-21-2012, 07:00 PM)csrowan Wrote: It may desensitize them, but violence has actually decreased as video game sales have risen.

If violence is decreasing, what are we discussing?
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#12
We're discussing ways to decrease it faster. And to keep it decreasing.
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#13
(12-21-2012, 09:10 PM)csrowan Wrote: We're discussing ways to decrease it faster. And to keep it decreasing.

I could have sworn we were discussing the overwhelming increase. Huh. Carry on.
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#14
Not the nonexistent overwhelming increase in violence. Just the actual overwhelming increase in public shootings.
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#15
(12-21-2012, 06:58 PM)Valuesize Wrote: And (some) people wonder why kids (young adults) have no trouble shooting up schools, theaters, malls etc.

Left 4 Dead Gameplay:



Are we the only people that play video games? Are they too having problems from this scourge? Nope.
A strawman?
Ban all guns and violence in movies too? Ban it from books? Is the second admendment so important we will infringe on the first admendment?
BTW Many if not most/all places require ID to buy R rated video games. No issues with that.
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#16
Guns don't kill people. Video games do! [/facepalm]
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