After a shooting Friday that left 20 first-graders dead, Americans flocked to gun stores to buy the exact same semiautomatic weapon used in the massacre.
Apparently, big spikes in gun sales are quite common after high-profile mass murders, the Christian Science Monitor reported back in July after a 24-year-old allegedly opened fire on a crowd of moviegoers.
The immediate conclusion might be that Americans fear for their personal safety and are rushing to arm themselves.
But they're also afraid of something else, CSM pointed out: new gun laws.
"Normally what happens – and I've been doing this for 30 years – is whenever they start talking about gun control on the news and they start pushing that, people have a tendency to think they're going to take away their right to buy the gun, and that usually spurs sales," Virginia gun shop owner Paul Decker told CSM.
Americans might be stocking up on semiautomatics in particular this week because of a looming ban on so-called assault rifles that could put a damper on a pastime some gun enthusiasts just say is fun.
SEE ALSO: How Congress Screwed Up And Let The Assault Weapons Ban Expire >
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