Since the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting last Friday morning gun sales have skyrocketed in the state, NPR reports.
According to the Denver Post, between Friday and Sunday, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation approved background checks for 2,887 people requesting to purchase a firearm—a 43 percent increase from the previous weekend and a 39 percent jump over the first weekend in July.
The Street.com reports that shares of Smith & Wesson and Ruger & Co. have outperformed the rest of the broader market in all of the trading days since the shooting occurred.
Coloradans decision to purchase firearms after the shooting that killed 12 and wounded 50 could either be out of fear of personal safety or that tighter gun laws could be enacted in the wake of the massacre, NPR speculates.
However, the Huffington Post said today that President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) have agreed that no new gun legislation will be put forth in the wake of the Colorado tragedy.
This post-shooting upward trend in gun sales is not isolated.
Similar spikes in firearm sales occurred in Tucson, Arizona after Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in 2010 and after the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
No reports have been filed yet on how much, if any, gun sales across the United States may have increased.
