Gun sales across the U.S. are rising, apparently getting a boost from President Barack Obama's repeated
calls for tougher gun control in the wake of a series of high-profile fatal shootings.
FBI records for August show that the agency handled 1.7 million background checks on gun purchasers at federally licensed dealers, the highest number recorded in any August since gun checks began in 1998,
USA Today reports. June and July also registered new monthly highs, the paper reports.
"Whenever there is a call for gun control, sales increase,'' Larry Keane, general counsel for the firearm industry trade association National Shooting Sports Foundation, tells USA Today. "Unfortunately, this is a pattern that repeats itself.''
“Sadly, gun violence is in the environment in this country every single day,” Obama told New Orleans station
WWL-TV after last month's fatal of shooting of two TV journalists in Virginia. "And some of this violence can't be prevented but a whole lot of it can if we are doing a better job of making sure that people who have problems, people who shouldn't have guns, don’t have them."
The current rush is still lower than the panic buying sparked in 2012 by calls for gun control after Newtown elementary school massacre, USA Today says.
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