Gun sales in Colorado are nearing a record-breaking high amid the anti-gun push that followed the two high profile shootings in Colorado Springs, one of which took place on Halloween Day and one of which occurred at a Planned Parenthood on November 27.
Last year the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted 314,976 background checks. They had already conducted 297,657 by the end of November, with the busiest month–December–yet to go.
According to The Denver Post, Colorado state representative Rhonda Fields (D-Aurora) believes the increased sales were also spurred by the San Bernardino terror attack. She said, “It seems like every time, whenever there is a mass shooting, gun sales always increase. It’s a trend. It happens.”
Fields supported the expanded background checks and magazine capacity limitations that Colorado instituted in the Spring of 2013, ubiquitously to prevent high profile shootings. Neither measure hindered Noah Harpman from shooting three civilians to death on Halloween or Robert Lewis Dear from shooting and killing two civilians and a police officer on November 27. Yet calls for even more gun control followed both incidents.
California likewise has expanded background checks and registration requirements for “assault weapons,” neither of which prevented Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik from opening fire and killing 14 people on December 2. That attack was also followed by a push for more gun control.
Coloradans are responding by buying up guns–especially concealed carry handguns that they can keep on their persons in order to defend themselves and their families.
Expanded background checks and the “high capacity” magazine ban faced steep opposition in Colorado, as gun rights groups argued that they would simply expand government regulation of the Second Amendment without impacting high profile shooters and other criminals. The 2016 elections are expected to feature state legislative candidates determined to repeal the gun laws that did nothing to hinder the Halloween and Planned Parenthood shootings.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.