Guns sales spike among gays, lesbians after Orlando terror: ‘People are looking for answers’

One of Denver’s oldest firearms dealers said his sales are skyrocketing in the wake of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Last Sunday’s terror attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, has sparked a surge in gun purchases on the other side of the country. George Horne, owner of The Gun Room, told a local Fox affiliate on Tuesday that sales have probably quadrupled compared to this time last year.

“For this time of year I’d say its three to four times what we normally have. We’re not surprised by it,” Mr. Horne said.

The station said The Pink Pistols, a national gun club for gays and lesbians, also gained 2,000 members in 48 hours following 29-year-old Omar Mateen’s attack on Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. The security guard was killed by a SWAT team early Sunday, but not before his semi-automatic rifle extinguished 49 other lives.

“I think right now because of what happened, people are looking for answers,” firearms instructor Mike Smith told Fox 31 Denver. “You walk into a gun shop and you expect to see people, frankly, who look [white, middle-aged] like me. I think we forget we’re a country of all people, not just people who fit that predetermined mold. I look at it as a disenfranchised minority that needs someone who’s willing to say, ’I’m a resource who’s here and willing to help.’”