http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=117590
Gun Sales Reportedly Increase After Virginia Tech Shootings
Created: 4/23/2007 2:50:14 PM
Last updated: 4/23/2007 2:53:22 PM
WPTV - JUPITER, FLORIDA - The shootings at Virginia Tech have sparked a renewed debate about gun control.
It may have also sparked an increase in gun sales at shops across the country.
"There's all kinds of crazy things almost every night when you turn on the television, and I think that just raises people's worries more about protecting themselves and protecting their homes," says Chaz Sunser of Chuck's Guns and Ammo.
Chuck's, a Jupiter, Florida firearms store, noticed a sharp increase in business last week.
Sales had been slow after Easter, but following the Virginia Tech tragedy their concealed weapons class filled up.
Handgun and ammo sales skyrocketed, both at Chuck's and around the country.
Chuck Sunser, the gun store's owner, says it's a nationwide trend.
"I spoke to three of my bigger distributors up north, and most of them are in the Pennsylvania area and Connecticut and they told me that their sales, the phones are going off the hooks. And most of the gun shops that they were dealing with were out west and mostly up north."
According to the National Rifle Association, more than half of U.S. households have at least one gun owner.
Chuck Sunser says his clients are mainly middle to upper class businessmen wanting to protect their families.
With each sale comes a background check and a lesson.
Sunser wants his weapons in the right hands.
"Unfortunately, the gun in the wrong hands is a bad thing, but it's not the guns that do these crimes, it's the people."