Our front-page lead regarding the rise in US gun sales following the terrorist atrocities in Paris and San Bernardino in California is perhaps hardly surprising. We know from past experience that when mass shootings take place – for whatever reason – gun stores see greater footfall in the following couple of months. But why should this be?
The answer is probably fear…
However, in the past it has been down to the fear of losing the rights to own those guns or, at the very least, fear of not being allowed to buy any more.
Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012, stores were besieged by potential gun owners, eager to snap up as many " rearms and as much ammunition as they could get their hands on.
We also saw sales of ammunition containers and ‘dumps’ really take off as this stuff was, in effect, being stockpiled. The driver for this was President Obama’s pronouncement at the time that he would be clamping down on gun ownership or, at the very least, examining what was available to buy and how you could purchase it. I witnessed this first-hand at SHOT Show 2013, a month after the Sandy Hook shooting, when all of these concerns were still very fresh in the mind.
On one morning the entire show floor was silent as President Obama’s address to the nation with his thoughts on gun control was broadcast live into the Sands Expo Centre.
His suggestion that we would look closely at limiting magazines to 10 rounds, ban automatic weapons and introduce universal background checks on anyone looking to buy a firearm, had a suitably predictable effect on those massed in front of the giant TV screens.