Gun Sales Reportedly Spike Following Aurora Theater Shooting Tragedy

The Denver Post reports that background checks for people wanting to buy guns in Colorado spiked by more than 41 percent since the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting that left 12 people dead and dozens more injured. Coloradan firearms instructors say they’ve seen increased interest in the training programs required for a concealed-carry permit.

“A lot of it is people saying, ‘I didn’t think I needed a gun, but now I do,’ ” the worker said. “When it happens in your backyard, people start reassessing — ‘Hey, I go to the movies.'”

The Post reports that between Friday and Sunday the Colorado Bureau of Investigation approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm. That’s a 43 percent increase over the previous weekend and a 39 percent jump over the first weekend of July.

The biggest single-day was the Friday of the shooting, when there were reportedly 1,216 checks — a 43 percent increase over the average number of the previous two Fridays.

It is common for gun sales and requested background checks to spike immediately following a mass shooting. In 2010, after Jared Loughner allegedly gunned down six people and injured others in Tucson, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, background checks in Arizona reportedly jumped 60 percent from one year earlier. A similar spike was experienced in 2007 after the shootings at Virginia Tech University in 2007 left 32 people dead.

[h/t The Denver Post]

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