A semi-automatic Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle was used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in which a disturbed local young man shot dead 20 young children, six adults and his mother before taking his own life. "Right after it, anti-guns (activists) started talking. The president said he wanted quick action, and so that is going to fuel the buying frenzy, and it is," Hyatt said, describing the rush as largely "politically motivated."
"We have been in business for 50 years, and we have seen (fear-based buying) before," Hyatt said. "But this is more intense because the president got in the media and basically said, 'if you want a gun, you better get it now.'" That means bigger business for an already huge industry: the gun and ammunition manufacturing industry in the United States groups about 300 companies with combined yearly sales estimated at around $7 billion.
Florida, the most heavily armed state, rocketed this week to a new record of active carry permits - over one million - a state government spokesman told AFP. Florida has 19 million people. "To shed some more light on the magazine situation at present, it really has been unprecedented in the last five days," Pete Brownell, whose company is the world's largest supplier of firearm supplies, posted on a guns forum.
Brownell said the company had seen the average demand for over three-and-a-half years' worth of PMAGs (polymer magazines) fly off the shelves in just 72 hours. "We're working like crazy to get these orders to you as quickly as possible," Brownell added.