Stocks for gun companies have risen following the deadly attack in Las Vegas – but that hasn’t necessarily translated into a flood of sales for local gun stores.
Tane Williams is manager of pawn shop Guns and Gold in Salt Lake. He says he has seen a change in business since the Vegas shooting, if modest.
“Yes, we have seen an uptick,” he says. “It’s only a slight uptick, but people get concerned that maybe their ability to procure firearms will be limited or diminished to some degree. So they get a little nervous about being able to make that acquisition.”
It’s a trend that’s become pretty common following mass shootings, or a change in political power in Washington.
The regulatory environment is still one of the biggest drivers for gun sales. But with a gun-friendly Republican administration and no indication Congress will make any movement on new gun laws, the industry is in a big slump.
“We have not seen, at least at our location here in Salt Lake City, an uptick in business over the last few days,” says Tyler Thompson, a manager at Impact Guns.
“This year as a whole has been much slower as an industry across the nation than the previous eight years," he says.
He says although there is still a lot of what he calls “fear-mongering” surrounding shooting events, there’s less “panic-buying” among consumers.