In the weeks after the San Bernardino shooting on December 2, gun shops saw a huge increase in those trying to purchase a firearm.
According to the FBI, the bureau’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System performed a record 3,314,594 firearm background checks, up 47 percent from November 2015.
FOX 61 reported last month that a new record was set for one-day gun sales on Black Friday. On Friday, November 27, 2015, the FBI performed 185,345 background checks, or more than two per second. November 2015 didn’t quite set a record for monthly background checks, but it was the only month in 2015 other than December to reach more than 2 million (2,243,030).
In Connecticut, there were 36,673 background checks conducted in December, up from 26,438 in November.
While sales are up, the political climate is bending under pressure to change gun laws. President Barack Obama is expected to announce new executive actions on gun sales in the next two weeks, which has many on edge about their rights to bear arms.
“Pretty soon you won’t be able to get guns,” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “It’s another step in the way of not getting guns.”
As a result of the surge in background checks–which don’t correlate one-to-one with gun sales since not everyone who applies qualifies to buy a gun–gun makers’ stocks are surging. CNN reported that Smith & Wesson’s shares soared 116 percent in 2015, as of December 8. Sturm, Ruger & Co. also saw a 66 percent increase in its shares last year.
On Monday, despite a weak day on the stock market, stocks in the two gun companies were up 6 and 3 percent.
“It’s the biggest growth of the year,” Wedbush Securities analyst James Hardiman said to the Associated Press. “Probably safe to say gun sales were up a lot in the month of December.”
Some attribute the jump to the possibly changing laws and recent terror attacks in California, Paris and other parts of the world.
“If the people in Paris had guns, you know what, you wouldn’t have had 134 people and many more to follow get killed,” Trump said in the CNN interview, echoing how many feel. “And if people in California had guns, a couple of guns in that room, you wouldn’t have had 16 people killed.”
