Many Americans agree and are stocking up on weapons after the country's worst mass shooting in three years. Gun retailers are reporting surging sales, with customers saying they want to keep handguns 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 with an indoor firing range. "People are more aware of the need to protect themselves."
[...] Gun sales were already on the rise this year. On Black Friday, the popular shopping day on Nov. 27 after the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday, a total of 185,345 applicants were processed through the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, a 5.5 percent increase from the year before.
The Pew Research Center found last December that 57 percent of Americans say they believe owning a gun helps protect people from crime, up from 48 percent in 2012. The rest said owning a gun would put personal safety at risk.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cellocgw on Saturday December 12 2015, @05:38PM
'nuff said.
Physicist, cellist, former OTTer (1190) resume: https://app.box.com/witthoftresume
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @10:22PM
"Americans are stupid. Ha ha, look at those dumb Americans, having conservative opinions, wanting to protect themselves and their family from harm. Don't they know that reality has a liberal bias? Everyone who doesn't think like me must be an utter retard!" -- cellocgw
(Score: 2) by timbim on Wednesday December 23 2015, @04:14AM
By every measure, statistic and metric, it is stupid for you to purchase weapons to protect yourself. Usually the reverse happens.