Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Romance of Mass Murder?

It appears that sales of the weapon Jared Loughner used in last Saturday's mass murder have soared.

Bloomberg reporter Michael Riley talked to an Arizona gun store owner who reported that gun sales surged after Saturday's shooting. The most popular item? The model of Glock that allowed Jared Loughner to spray 31 bullets into the crowd before being disarmed. FBI data shows gun sales in Arizona jumped 60 percent on January 10 compared to that day last year, and 5 percent nationally.

The store owner foresaw the uptick in business, telling his employees to expect a stampede of customers following the massacre. Apparently the same thing happened after Virginia Tech.

I guess one could explain the surge in gun sales by claiming that gun enthusiasts are "buying now" before the Glock 9mm is banned, but it could also be that they find mass murder really exciting and want to own the "weapon that blew up Tucson."

It seems more likely that it would be the latter.

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