30,000 AR-15s Sold In The Week Following The Orlando Attack

Call it sustaining love, or call it sustaining stupidity, but it seems Americans just can’t have enough of guns. In the week following the Orlando shooting from last Sunday, gun sales in the United States have soared, with Americans showing a particular interest in the AR-15.

Barely a week has passed since a terrorist by the name of Omar Mateen open fired in the Pulse Gay Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and injuring many more. But Fox Business Network reports that during this time, one particular gun store has sold over 30,000 AR-15s, the gun used by Omar in the shooting.

Tom Engle is the owner of Hunter’s Warehouse, an online retail that has some 300,000 to 400,000 weapons in storage. Tom told the FOX Business Network‘s Stuart Varney that Hunter’s Warehouse has sold over 30,000 AR-15s since last Sunday’s shooting.

The AR-15, despite appearances is actually a semi-automatic weapon, meaning it can only fire one shot at each pull of a trigger. First made in 1959, it can cost anywhere between $350 to $8,000, according to Tom Engle. Engle explained that despite each state having its own set of gun laws, it was still possible to buy the AR-15 online. He even went on to explain how that would work.

“You would have the firearm shipped to an FFL (Federal Firearms License agency) in your home state because every state is different and then they would be responsible to do the paperwork for you in your home state.”

And Engle seems to understand what it is that has led to the spike in sales of the AR-15s. He says that this can slightly be attributed to the people’s desire to protect themselves against terrorists like Mateen. But he believes that this massive spike in sales stems from a different type of fear: the fear that the AR-15, America’s favorite gun, could be banned amid the recent upsurge in cries to ban these assault rifles.

“Shootings don’t push up gun sales. It’s when the government starts talking about banning particular guns and up go gun sales. When people lose their right to buy a particular gun or a particular type of gun, they go after them and they want them then.”

What has been dubbed the deadliest mass shooting in American history, the Orlando nightclub shooting incident on Sunday, June 12, claimed 49 lives and injured several others. Though it initially reported that Omar Mateen, the man behind the shooting, might have been using an AR-15, it was later confirmed that the gun he had used was the Sig Sauer MCX. The misunderstanding comes from Orlando Police chief, John Mina’s initial description of Omar’s weapon, which he had called “an AR-15 style assault rifle.” The media later sort of dropped the “style” in their reports.

This recent mass shooting has brought the very controversial, long-fought gun debate back into light once again. Following the attack, Sen. Chris Murphy along with other Democrats had held a 15-hour long filibuster in the Senate, resulting in commitments from the Republican leaders that they would hold votes on amendments to expand background checks and ban gun sales to suspected terrorists.

The U.S. suffers more from gun-related violence than any other country in the world. This has forced many U.S. citizens to reconsider their position on the issue. Many are demanding a tough reform of the gun law, with greater restrictions on the ability to obtain guns. However, they face a strong opposition from proponents of the Second Amendment, which guarantees American citizens the right to bear arms.

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