TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – A study from Gallup found a sharp drop in republican’s support for stricter gun laws stems from the pandemic, civil unrest and the presidential election while gun sales reach record highs nationwide.
Gun Garage owner, Floyd McMillin agrees, he said a lot of his customers say they feel unsafe at home.
He’s seen many first-time buyers in the past year creating record numbers of sales and training. With big and small gun stores across the country dealing with inventory shortages.
“At the beginning, women were really the big portion of it now it’s old, young, men, women, everybody. It doesn’t matter, there’s just not one thing anymore,” he said.
Nationwide, there have been 18 million new gun buyers in the last four to five months.
Locally, Gun Garage’s total sales tax amount they sent the City of Topeka in 2020 was $335,000.
McMillin said if the government creates stricter gun laws, it would affect more than just the gun selling business.
“That’s a big chunk that goes to the government and our system for the roads and everything. So, for them to do that would put a major hurt on our country because that industry is just huge. It’s big and people need it to make a living.”
Semi-automatic pistols and self-defense shotguns are the most popular purchases at Gun Garage.
The Gallup poll shows American’s support for a handgun ban is near the lowest on record in their 40-year trend.
He said a large part of the influx in gun sales comes from distrust in the government.
“They’ll say whatever they say to get elected, but so many people take it like a grain of salt and so they get so worried about that they think they’re going to try to take their guns. Well you have to realize that the gun industry itself, it produces billions of dollars in revenue for the United States,” said McMillin.
“They’ll never get it done. They can vote all they want but it’ll never go through because they cannot change the second amendment and our rights as Americans.”
McMillin asks for safety first.
“As long as they take the steps to learn the gun like they do every morning to drive their car, I feel comfortable. It’s the ones that don’t come follow up, they don’t know much about a gun then they take it home and think they’re going to use it. That’s the ones I’m scared for.”
McMillin said he had to close Gun Garage on Sundays to clean because of COVID-19 and to reorganize because of the mass amount of sales.
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Gun Garage, like many gun stores across the country, is seeing a record number of sales and training.
A study from Gallup shows 22% of republicans, 60% of independents and 85% of democrats want stricter gun laws.
Nationwide, there have been 18 million new gun buyers in the last four to five months.
Locally, Owner of Gun Garage Floyd McMillin said the total sales tax amount he sent the City of Topeka last year was $335,000.
He added if the government was to create stricter laws, it would affect more than just gun selling businesses locally and nationally.
“That’s a big chunk that goes to the government and our system for the roads and everything. So, for them to do that would put a major hurt on our country because that industry is just huge. It’s big and people need it to make a living,” he said.
The study found the sharp drop in republican’s support stems from the pandemic, civil unrest and the presidential election. McMillin agrees. He said they feel unsafe at home and he’s seen many first-time buyers in the past couple years.
Semi-automatic pistols and self-defense shotguns are the most popular purchases at the Gun Garage. A big reason for the pistols are they are very concealable.
They said they made more than $50,000 in sales this past Saturday alone. Shattering their record high in a day.
The surge is causing ammunition supplies to run low with many being unavailable. The company that supplies Gun Garage told 13 News they have seven million rounds of ammo in their backlog.
Gun Garage is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday. They are closed Sundays for cleaning and to re-organize the store.
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