US gun sales soar after California mass shooting
Many Americans are stocking up on weapons after the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, the worst in the US in three years.
Gun dealers are reporting surging sales, with customers saying they want to keep guns and rifles at hand for self-defense in the event of another attack.
“Everyone is reporting up, every store, every salesman, every distributor,” said Ray Peters, manager of Range, Guns & Safes, a company that sells firearms and safes in Atlanta, Georgia. “People are more aware of the need to protect themselves.”
Gun sales were already on the rise this year, as reflected in Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data on background checks for people seeking to purchase guns.
On Wednesday, 14 people were killed and 21 injured in a mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. That shooting follows an attack that killed three on November 27 at an abortion clinic in Colorado.
Other high-profile mass shootings have occurred in a six-month span in Charleston, South Carolina and Lafayette, Louisiana, as well as in Roanoke, Virginia.
Gun sales often increase after mass shootings. The week the FBI performed the most background checks since 1998 came immediately after the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 27 people.
In a country where people own more guns than anywhere else in the world, the latest mass shooting has reignited a long-running national debate over Americans’ constitutional right to bear firearms.
Critics of America’s gun laws point to a range of statistics underscoring the risks of widespread gun ownership.
An editorial in The New York Times published on Saturday described America’s gun violence as “a moral outrage and national disgrace” following the mass shootings in California and Colorado.
The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge by gun rights activists to a law passed by the city of Highland Park, Illinois banning assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.
The 2013 ordinance by Highland Park bans various semi-automatic weapons, including well-known guns such as the AR-15 and AK-47, in addition to magazines holding more than 10 rounds of bullets.
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