The Surge

Trey Smith

Sadly, a predictable statistic is bearing itself out after two spree killings in one week: Gun sales are surging across the country. The very same thing happened after the mass shooting in Aurora, CO, as gun sales ticked up by 40 percent.

There basically are two main reasons for these surges: a) People are scared and so they feel there is a need to purchase a gun for personal protection and b) Gun enthusiasts worry that mass killings might lead to gun control legislation, so they want to buy as many as possible before a potential ban can be put in place.

What worries me is that there is another group -- a small select group -- who purchase weapons partially because of the second reason above AND partially because they might want to carry out their own spree killings in the future. If you think you might want to achieve your own degree of infamy at some point and the weapons of choice -- assault weapons and high volume gun clips -- may soon be pulled from the market, now certainly is the time to buy.

Be this as it may, it still is preferable to remove assault weapons from the market than to leave them there. At the very least, maybe the select group will be far smaller than it would be otherwise!