With multiple mass shooting incidents in 2015 and the Christmas shopping season now upon us, gun sales are seeing a major spike in the United States.
Take for example firearm giant Smith & Wesson. Reports shows gun sales for the company rose over 15 percent during the past three months, generating nearly $125-million.
Sales at Smith & Wesson were up 32 percent over the year and the net income, totaling $14-million, was close to three times what the company made last year.
Tom Holmes has owned South Jacksonville’s Military Surplus Outlet for the past 31 years and says Christmas season is always a busy time for his business.
“We’re kind of brisk out here and selling quite a few of them. I believe it is due to hunting, the time of season and the uneasiness of this country.”
Holmes says mass shootings and tighter restrictions on gun laws always generate increased gun sales.
“Whenever you tell an American no, they are going to show you they can do it. Whenever they get an uneasy feeling, they are going to come in and buy guns. It depends on the politicians, because when they want to ban the so-called assault weapons, then they will run in here and buy the semi-automatic riffles,” says Holmes
“So when a gun is being pushed away people will want that gun,” asked WLDS/WEAI News.
“Whenever they tell us we shouldn’t have them, then people will buy them. Whenever a politician opens his mouth, like our President, and says we shouldn’t have them or is thinking about banning them, then people want them.”
New gun owners have generated the majority of sales over the past year at Military Surplus Outlet, according to Holmes.
Holmes says there are already plenty of gun owners in Illinois due to shootings and terrorist attacks over the past 15 years.
A story from the Washington Post reported 355 mass shootings in 2015, each of which resulted in four or more victims being killed.