Brisk Holiday Gun Sales Come As No Surprise To Industry Experts

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- Mass shootings like Wednesday's tend to pump up gun sales.

It's a trend that has accelerated in recent weeks, including here in the Tri-State area.

You could call it the 'Guns of November.' As CBS2's Lou Young reported, the agency that keeps track of criminal background checks for gun purchases said there were more than 185,000 potential gun customers in the system the day after Thanksgiving.

The brisk holiday gun sales may be news to a lot of us, but it's no surprise to people in the business. They can see it happening, they say demand is up.

"We had a lot of people in the store. New shooters, and old ones looking for new firearms. We had a really good sale going on, so we had people trying to take advantage of the sales," Simon Oram, Gun Instructor and Salesman, said.

This is in suburban New York, Elmsford in Westchester County, at a place called Blueline Tactical.

Owner Ben Rosenshine said sales were good last year and they've jumped another 5 percent in the current season.

Bad news at home and abroad, even mass shootings, seem to drive the desire to arm.

"There's two reasons. People are concerned and starting to take charge of their own safety, they're worried about terrorism and the increase in crime. The other is that they want a gun before they feel their right is going to be taken away from them," Rosenshine said.

Two different kinds of fears, but both have been good for business.

FBI statistics indicated that in November, more than 71,000 people began the process of buying a firearm in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.