I can think of two reasons why sales would jump drastically after an event like this, people realize that this type of event can happen anywhere and people are afraid the government will try to ban weapons.
On the first point, this type of thing can happen anywhere. This world is full of crazy people who have no ability to control themselves. Being prepared to deal with these idiots is our responsibility. It's too bad that in many places, like chicago and washington dc, the government has taken away people's right to defend themselves from these people. It has been proven that in places where people have the tight to carry a concealed weapon, the crime rates go down. In the case of the insane individual in Arizona, even concealed carry laws won't deter thnigs like this.
On the second, banning firearms will not stop an insane person from obtaining a gun, or a bad guy either. Even if they can't get a firearm, a mentally disturbed person will use a baseball bat or a hammer or a car. Should we attempt to ban all of these things too? One other thought on this, people in other countries may have given up their firearms when the government of their country began confiscating them, it won't be like that here. You can bet that if our government even thinks about taking our firearms, well, it's not going to be pretty...
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Wolff was right. Instead of hurting sales, the massacre had the $499 semi-automatic pistols -- popular with police, sport shooters and gangsters -- flying out the doors of his Glockmeister stores in Mesa and Phoenix.
“We’re at double our volume over what we usually do,” Wolff said two days after the shooting spree that also left 14 wounded, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who remains in critical condition.
A national debate over weaknesses in state and federal gun laws stirred by the shooting has stoked fears among gun buyers that stiffer restrictions may be coming from Congress, gun dealers say. The result is that a deadly demonstration of the weapon’s effectiveness has also fired up sales of handguns in Arizona and other states, according to federal law enforcement data.
“When something like this happens people get worried that the government is going to ban stuff,” Wolff said.
Arizona gun dealers say that among the biggest sellers over the past two days is the Glock 19 made by privately held Glock GmbH, based in Deutsch-Wagram, Austria, the model used in the shooting.
Sales Jump
One-day sales of handguns in Arizona jumped 60 percent to 263 on Jan. 10 compared with 164 the corresponding Monday a year ago, the second-biggest increase of any state in the country, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data.
Handgun sales rose 65 percent to 395 in Ohio; 16 percent to 672 in California; 38 percent to 348 in Illinois; and 33 percent to 206 in New York, the FBI data show. Sales increased nationally about 5 percent, to 7,906 guns.
Federally tracked gun sales, which are drawn from sales in gun stores that require a federal background check, also jumped following the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, in which 32 people were killed.
“Whenever there is a huge event, especially when it’s close to home, people do tend to run out and buy something to protect their family,” said Don Gallardo, a manager at Arizona Shooter’s World in Phoenix, who said that the number of people signing up for the store’s concealed weapons class doubled over the weekend. Gallardo said he expects handgun sales to climb steadily throughout the week.
