Gun sales spike after latest school shooting

WSBTV.com News Staff
·2 min read
7

In the aftermath of the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, gun sales are surging.

Channel 2 anchor Justin Wilfon spoke with the owner of a local gun shop, who says sales are up 30% in the last few days.

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The owner of Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Eric Wallace, said this follows a pattern of what he has seen after other mass shootings.

“We’ve dealt with this before. Folks will come in and buy more guns and ammunition,” Wallace said.

Following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, this week more people have come into his store to buy guns.

“We started to see a slight uptick Wednesday. It kind of escalated a bit more on Thursday and today we’ve seen a pretty significant pickup,” Wallace said.

Since the shooting on Tuesday, the store’s sales are up 30%. It follows a trend seen across the country after other mass shootings and Wallace says there’s a simple reason why.

“Anytime politicians get on TV and talk about anti-gun legislation, folks come here in the store because they want to purchase more firearms,” Wallace said.

He said his customers are concerned about legislation that they believe could prevent them from buying guns in the future.

We talked with one of those customers, Mark Hare.

“I do have some concerns about the future and our Second Amendment in general and our rights to bear arms and exercising those rights,” Hare said.

Meanwhile, Wallace says other customers are just worried for their safety, after seeing another mass shooting.

“A lot of people are concerned with protecting their families also — home defense shotguns, things like that,” Wallace said.

Authorities say the gunman in Uvalde, Texas used an AR-15 in his rampage.

In the days following the shooting, Wallace told me that was one of the guns that his customers wanted.

“It’s across the board. We’ve seen a pickup in AR-15s,” Wallace said.

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Additionally, companies in the gun industry have seen their stock prices soar this week. Stock prices have been going up because of the anticipated rise in sales.

Gun maker Smith & Wesson’s stock price went up 8% in the days following the shooting. And the stock price for Ammo Inc. has jumped almost 16% this week.

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