Sunday Times 2
Guns sell out at US retailer Walmart
View(s):Americans rush to stockpile arsenals in aftermath of Sandy Hook
By Hayley Peterson
Demand for firearms has exploded in the U.S., wiping store shelves clean of guns and ammo in nearly every town, city and state since the school shooting in Connecticut and ensuing calls for stricter gun laws.
Gun retailers as large as Walmart are nearly sold out of every type of firearm, including semiautomatic rifles like the one that 20-year-old Adam Lanza used to kill 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary school on Friday.
A quick search for a handful of firearms that Walmart advertises turned up no results at store locations in a dozen states, including New York, California and Wisconsin.
‘It’s a money-grab out there,’ Mike McGovern, an IT project manager, told Huffington Post. McGovern said he bought a Glock 19 handgun the morning after the shooting in Connecticut at a packed Western New Jersey gun store.
Smaller retailers are also sold out as Americans panic over calls by President Obama and numerous lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, to strengthen the country’s gun laws. John Hotchkiss, owner of Red Bear Gun Brokers in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said his gun inventory is nearly sold out – as are his nearly two dozen distributors.
‘Three of my distributors’ websites even went down,’ Hotchkiss told the Colorado Springs Gazette.
As gun enthusiasts stock up up their arsenals, more and more people are applying for permits to own and carry firearms.
‘Ever since the events out of Connecticut, our phones have been going crazy in our [concealed handgun permit] office,’ El Paso County sheriff’s office spokesman Jeff Kramer told the Gazette. ‘We’re asking the community to be patient with us.’
With the rise in demand for firearms has also come a massive mark-up in prices for the weapons and ammunition.
On eBay, bids for Glock handgun magazines were as high as $118.37, up from $45 on the day of the shooting. Likewise, the high bid for Glock magazines was $201 on December 17, up from $71.01 before the shootings.
Walmart and other large gun retailers have come under fire for continuing to sell guns – and particularly the kind used by Adam Lanza in the school shooting. But the company is sticking by its decision not to stop selling guns of nearly every make variety.
‘We remain dedicated to the safe and responsible sale of firearms in areas of the country where they are sold,’ David Tovar, a spokesman for Walmart, told Bloomberg. Walmart sells guns in nearly half of its 3,800 U.S. stores and rifles like the ones used in Newtown are available at most of them.
Unlike Walmart, sports retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods has decided to pull semiautomatic rifles from its 511 stores in 44 states ‘out of respect for the victims and their families.’ The retailer has also decided to remove all guns from its store near Newtown.
Pawn shop owner Frank James said he has decided to discontinue selling all firearms – including this Bushmaster AR-15, the kind Adam Lanza used in Newtown – at his shop, Loanstar Jewellery and Pawn, in Seminole, Florida.
James said about 50 per cent of his revenue comes from gun sales, but he couldn’t bear to sell them anymore for the sake of his daughter, who is in first grade. ‘I didn’t want her thinking daddy’s an evil guy, he sells guns,’ he said.
© Daily Mail, London
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