Photo Credit: By Fish Cop (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Following the recent Oregon school shooting and a Presidential call for increased gun control, gun sales are skyrocketing in Oklahoma and across the nation. That’s not the only effect — the number of people taking classes to conceal carry is also on the rise.
According to KWTV News 9 in Oklahoma City, sales are on track to be the highest on record across the country. Gun sales this year could exceed record sales reached in 2013, after the December, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which left 27 people dead, including 20 children. In the first nine months of this year, 15.6 million background checks to buy guns from federally-licensed dealers have been undertaken, compared to 15.5 million in the same period in 2013, according to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
The spike in sales follows long-set trends in the United States, which has experienced rocketing gun sales after many major mass-shootings.
“The best way to deal with a murderer with a firearm is with another firearm and somebody trained that can use it,” U.S. Congressman Steve Russell said.
“You have to ask, ‘do we have the right to defend our families?’ and if so, ‘is a firearm the way to do that?'” Russell said. “It’s a God given right.”
That sentiment is evident in the increased demand for concealed-carry licenses in Oklahoma, where there’s barely room to get into a conceal-carry classes in the Oklahoma City metro area.
Instructors are claiming their classes are packed with people wanting to make sure they can protect themselves.
Over at Big Boys Guns, Ammo, and Range in southwest Oklahoma City, Angie Houch teaches her students how to shoot a gun. “They’re wanting to make sure they can protect themselves,” Houch said. And Houch’s classes are packed. “We have a classroom that can support several, you know 50 to 100 people, but we also have multiple instructors,” Houch said.
“It takes training, it takes repetition, and it takes practice,” Houch said. “You want to be prepared. It’s all about being prepared.”
Miles Hall, founder and owner of H&H Shooting Sports, said “A lot of people don’t realize how much goes into all this.” At H&H Shooting Sports, Hall said he’s seeing a much more focused effort on getting permits.
“This tool (the gun) is to protect you. The gun doesn’t kill people, people kill people,” Houch said.
Another important tool essential for your protection is also being educated and prepared on what to do after you are involved in an incident and having immediate access to an attorney to assist you.
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