3.44 AM Friday, 29 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:56 06:10 12:26 15:53 18:37 19:52
29 March 2024

Connecticut shooting aftermath: Bushmaster gun sales surge

Published
By Staff

The horrible, horrible shootout at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, carried out in cold blood by the gun-wielding Adam Lanza, was supposed to put a dampener on the mindless gun hoarding in America.

It is, unfortunately, having the exact opposite effect as gun sales surge in Connecticut and elsewhere in the US right after the mentally disturbed Lanza got access to his mother’s four (licensed) guns and went on a shooting spree, butchering his mother, 20 tiny-tots and six adults before committing suicide with the same guns, according to investigators.

What’s weird – a sad, sad coincidence – is that, according to the gun stores, one of their top selling items is the AR-15 style assault rifle, the same gun used by Adam Lanza in the Newtown mass murder.

While the motive of Gun Master Lanza is still unclear, the reasoning behind the thousands scrambling to buy up rifles is clearer – it is likely because they believe that, in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, laws will finally come in force preventing them from buying the guns.

Most Americans who are now bingeing on Bushmaster – the makers of the assault weapon that killed 27 people in Connecticut – believe that if they already own a gun before a new law is imposed, they will not be forced to give them up.

Of course, no one will have a clear reasoning on why they need such ridiculously powerful weapons in the first place.

Nancy Lanza, Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza’s mother, was apparently bought the guns as part of her preparation for fiscal disaster – she was one of those Americans who think that they will need to rely on dry batteries, canned food and assault weapons ‘once’ the economy fails and the government caves in.

Nancy Lanza wasn’t certainly alone in such thinking, as Robert Caselnova will vouch. Caselnova is the owner of a gun shop less than 10 minutes from the ill-fated Sandy Hook school, and he claims that he sold a huge number of guns over the weekend.

His is a store where Adam Lanza and his mother had visited to look at guns, but Caselnova insists they hadn’t purchased any specifically from him.

In North Carolina, Hyatt Gun Shop owner Larry Hyatt reported that he had a Black Friday-esque line outside of his store and had to call in extra employees. “We already have tons of customers because of Christmas, hunting season is peaking right now, and not to mention, the election,” He said. “But this tragedy is pushing sales through the roof. It’s like putting gasoline on a fire.”

Data published by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicates that 2012 has been a record year for gun sales in the US. The FBI recorded more than 16.8 million background checks for gun purchases in 2012, the highest number since it began publishing the data in 1998.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, it is not uncommon for gun sales to see a boost following a mass shooting, as buyers head to stores mostly motivated by self-defense.

In the first four days following the July mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado, gun sales reportedly increased 41 per cent.

The same is happening now, in the aftermath of the weekend’s shootout at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

How many of these guns will find their way into the hands of more Adam Lanzas? You tell me.