SMYRNA, Ga – After the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, gun sales are on the rise.
Justin Wilfon, presenter of Channel 2 spoke with the owner of a local armory, who says sales have risen 30% in recent days.
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Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna owner Eric Wallace said this follows a pattern of what he has seen after other mass shootings.
“We’ve dealt with this before. People will come in and buy more weapons and ammunition,” Wallace said.
After the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, more people have entered their store this week to buy weapons.
“We started to see a slight rebound on Wednesday. It rose a little more on Thursday and today we saw a pretty big recovery,” Wallace said.
Since Tuesday’s shooting, store sales have risen 30 percent. It follows a nationwide trend after other mass shootings, and Wallace says there’s a simple reason.
“Every time politicians go on TV and talk about anti-gun legislation, people come here to the store because they want to buy more guns,” Wallace said.
He said his clients are concerned about legislation they believe could prevent them from buying weapons in the future.
We spoke to one of these clients, Mark Hare.
“I have some concerns about the future and our Second Amendment in general and our rights to bear arms and exercise those rights,” Hare said.
Meanwhile, Wallace says other customers are only concerned about his safety, after seeing another mass shooting.
“A lot of people are also concerned about protecting their families – home defense shotguns, things like that,” Wallace said.
Authorities say the gunman in Uvalde, Texas, used an AR-15 in his rioting.
In the days after the shooting, Wallace told me that was one of the weapons his clients wanted.
“It’s general. We saw a van on AR-15,” Wallace said.
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In addition, companies in the arms industry have seen their stock prices rise this week. Stock prices have been rising due to the expected increase in sales.
The stock price of arms maker Smith & Wesson rose 8% in the days following the shooting. And the share price of Ammo Inc. has risen nearly 16% this week.
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