People are stockpiling assault-style rifles after the Florida school shooting
- Gun sales are surging after the Florida school shooting that killed 17 students and staff members.
- Criminal background checks for gun sales rose 3.5% in Florida in the month of February, Bloomberg reports.
- Background checks for long guns, which includes assault-style rifles like the one used in the Parkland school shooting, surged 12.6% in the state.
Sales of assault-style rifles are surging in the aftermath of the Florida school shooting that killed 17 students and staff members
Criminal background checks for gun sales - a key metric for estimating the demand for guns - rose 3.5% in Florida in the month of February, compared to the previous year, Bloomberg reports.
Background checks for long guns, which includes assault-style rifles like the one used in the Parkland school shooting, surged 12.6% in the state. Nationwide, that metric rose 3%.
Gun sales typically surge after mass shootings, due to rising fears over tightening gun controls.
But under President Donald Trump, gun sales have slowed - a trend that has been called the "Trump slump" - because he's seen as supportive of the gun industry.
The recent rush of demand for guns indicates that "fear-based buying" is back, according to KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Brett Andress.
It "starts to beg the question: Is fear-based buying back? Given all the recent headlines and rhetoric, we would argue yes, for the moment," Andress wrote in a research note.