Demand for guns in Colorado jumps in wake of movie massacre
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Colorado gun stores are seeing a big jump in demand for firearms since last Friday's massacre at a midnight movie showing in Aurora.
Background checks for people wanting to buy guns in Colorado reportedly increased more than 41 percent after last week’s Aurora movie massacre. The Denver Post reports that firearm instructors have also seen increased interest in training needed for a concealed-carry permit.
"It's been insane," Jake Meyers, an employee at Rocky Mountain Guns and Ammo in Parker told the newspaper Monday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Between Friday and Sunday, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm — a 43 percent increase over the previous Friday through Sunday and a 39 percent jump over those same days on the first weekend of July.
The biggest spike was on Friday, when there were 1,216 checks, a 43 percent increase over the average number for the previous two Fridays.
On Friday morning, just hours after alleged 24-year-old gunman James Holmes killed 12 and injured 58 others at the Century Aurora theater, up to 20 people were already waiting outside the store when Meyers arrived, he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He said the day was “probably the busiest Monday all year” and said basic firearms classes that he and the store’s owner conduct are booked for the next three weeks — a first for this year, the newspaper reports.
"A lot of it is people saying, 'I didn't think I needed a gun, but now I do,' " he told the newspaper. "When it happens in your backyard, people start reassessing — 'Hey, I go to the movies.'"