7 States Where Gun Sales Are Surging Since the Sandy Hook School Shootings

Across the nation, the rush is on to grab assault rifles and large-capacity magazines -- even in Connecticut.

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His partner, Mike Klein, said people are buying handguns and shotguns for home protection “but they are buying rifles because they think they might not be able to get them much longer.”

7. Louisiana. In the Bayou State, sales of guns and ammunition have been high on the upswing since Obama's re-election. But now, since the school shootings, they're off the chain. From a report by Tania Dall of WWLTV's Eyewitness News team:

In November, the Jefferson Parish store [Jefferson Gun Outlet] saw a 117 percent jump in sales. [Owner Mike] Mayer said last Friday's tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School has phones ringing off the hook.

"There are a lot of stock checks going on because the stores around this area are running out. So people are frantically trying to find something, somewhere that they can go purchase," said Mayer.

[...]

"Our main distributor is here in Louisiana, in Shreveport. They sell over 1 million guns a year at their distributor base and they're completely out of anything that would be considered an assault weapon," said Mayer.

Adele M. Stan is AlterNet's Washington correspondent. She co-edited, with Don Hazen, the AlterNet book, Dangerous Brew: Exposing the Tea Party's Agenda to Take Over America. Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/addiestan . Send tips to: adele@alternet.org