OGDEN, Utah—Background checks for firearm purchases in Utah have increased since a gunman killed 12 people and wounded 58 others at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., last Friday, but the Utah Department of Public Safety said it won’t speculate why there’s been a spike.
Public Safety spokesman Dwayne Baird told the Deseret News ( ) Wednesday the state saw an increase of about 10 percent in background checks for after-market gun sales on Friday and Saturday, and an increase of 30 to 40 percent on Monday.
The department said Utah has already had several record months this year in the number of background checks, and July can also set a record, according to the newspaper.
Gun sales have increased in Colorado and other states since the theater shootings.
In Colorado, the state approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to buy a gun in the three days following the shooting. The number of checks was 25 percent more than the average Friday to Sunday period this year and 43 percent more than the same interval the week prior.
The increases are happening during a time that is typically slow for gun sales. June and July have consistently been the slowest months during the past decade, according to FBI data.
Curtis Alexander, a customer at Impact Guns in Ogden, said “anything can happen any day, really.”
“I have family that lives in the Colorado area, so it just seemed a little bit close to home,” he said.
Craig Ball, the manager at Impact Guns, said he typically sees increases in firearm sales after other mass shootings.
“Every time there’s a tragedy, people get an increased sense of awareness that bad things do happen to good people,” Ball said.
Ball said sales at his store have increased by at least 70 percent since Friday. Most people are buying handguns for their personal protection, he said. But there’s also an increase in the sale of AR-15 weapons—which the shooter used in the theater—because customers are nervous about a possible ban, Ball said.
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Information from: Deseret News,
