After a Glock-wielding gunman killed six people at a Tucson shopping center on Jan. 8, Greg Wolff, the owner of two Arizona gun shops, told his manager to get ready for a stampede of new customers.
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.
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.
(Source: Bloomberg)
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5 Responses
I’m not sure of this article’s agenda, but the bottom line is most new shooters get the glock 19 for their first gun, a bad thing happened and people want to protect themselves, hence the new shooter does what all new shooters always do and bought a glock 19, it has nothing to do with the fact that the shooter used a glock 19 in his crazed attack, and people want to emulate him or have the same gun as was used the attack, saying that is equivalent to the Leftest wacho’s who say rush limaugh and glen beck caused the attack
The Glock is an excellent gun. It is also desireable because it is a light gun due to it’s polymer (as opposed to metal) frame.
When people are frightened, as they certainly have good reason to be, they want to be able to protect themselves.
In the People’s Republic of New York, despite the tragedy caused by this lunatic last week, it is way MORE dangerous than Arizona. Unfortunately, here, it is almost impossible to get a handgun carry permit, and virtually any, even non-lethal, weapon (like a stun-gun) is illegal. The criminals, who of course are not effected by gun laws, know this, and so we all have VICTIM written on our backs.
It is time for the general public to get over their unfounded fear of firearms and pressure lawmakers to make it easier for law-abiding citizens to get and carry them.
Or (chalila)… you can just wait to become a victim statistic.
AinOhdMilvado:
Interesting pen name, considering the sentiments you express.
In addition, what you’re saying does not fit with the facts.
The Arizona congresswoman was herself the owner of a Glock — and it did not do her much good.
As for the shooter, were it not for the ease of buying automatic weapons in Arizona, the tragedy would never have occurred.
Personally, I prefer to live in a state where sociopaths angry at the world can’t walk into their local store and buy an automatic weapon.
But maybe that’s just me.
Shlomo 2…
You could not be more incorrect.
1) My “pen name” does not preclude that I -and all of us- are obligated to do our hishtadlus to protect ourselves and our families, and not depend on neesim.
2) I don’t know how you would know what brand of gun the congresswoman owned (and it really doesn’t matter) but…
a. I haven’t read that she was carrying a gun at the time of the attack, and b. I never said that carrying a gun can prevent or be a solution in EVERY circumstance.
3) First of all, this was not an “automatic” weapon (which is illegal), it was a semi-automatic, which simply means it fires one bullet for each pull of the trigger. Secondly, the perpetrator of this crime was clearly a lunatic, and if he couldn’t have gotten a weapon in a gun shop, he would surely have gotten it (illegally) somewhere else, AS THE VAST MAJORITY OF CRIMINALS DO.
4) You may not live in a state where sociopaths can walk into a local store and buy a SEMI-automatic weapon, but you DO live in a state where those sociopaths WILL still get all the weapons they want, ILLEGALLY.
Their victims however, will be unarmed, because of the wonderful laws you seem to support.
oy.
yidden and gun control.
you’d think we’d learn.
No gun killed anyone in Arizona.
No bullets did this.
A PERSON DID.
You can’t legislate away evil.