Gun Sales 2021: Boulder, Atlanta Mass Shootings Will Make Firearm Manufacturers Richer

Gun manufacturers are preparing for a windfall after a week of mass shootings. The massacres in Colorado and Georgia have reignited calls for gun control, which historically has driven up gun sales as owners anticipate future scarcity, CNN reports.

"When you hear more calls for firearm restrictions, we have observed gun sale increases primarily from people buying before they're not able to," said Rob Southwick, founder of market research firm Southwick Associates.

President Joe Biden has called for a ban on assault weapons as well as high capacity magazines, also suggesting that Congress close loopholes in the background check process

"I don't need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take common-sense steps that will save lives in the future," he said.

A sales spike wouldn’t be confirmed until next month, when background check data is made public. Experts, however, would be surprised if gun owners don’t start rushing to shelves. Democrats repeatedly threatening gun control measures and then failing to implement them has repeatedly turned normal firearm distribution into limited-time pressure sales.

"It's a longstanding pattern," said David Kopel, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.

After 2013’s Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, Barack Obama and congressional Democrats pushed for federal gun control. The proposal never made it past the Senate, but did succeed in spiking gun sales.

After a Las Vegas gunman killed 56 people in 2017 using a bump stock, Donald Trump considered banning them. The idea never resulted in actual gun control, but bump stock sales surged after the threat.

In the wake of Colorado’s shooting, firearm proponents have alternately asked for patience in investigating the shooting and offered defiant defenses of Republicans’ interpretation of the Second Amendment.

Mark Oliva, a spokesperson for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said gun enthusiasts are on the same side as regulators.

"We want the investigative process to go forward as it needs to," he told CNN. "We urge Congress and the White House to do the same."