Gun Sales Spike in Colo. Following Theater Massacre

(Newsroom America) -- Gun sales have soared in Colorado since last Friday's massacre at a theater in Aurora, outside of Denver, and classes for concealed carry permits have filled to the brim, local reports said.

"It's been insane," Jake Meyers, an employee at Rocky Mountain Guns and Ammo in Parker, told the Denver Post Monday, two days after suspect James Holmes killed 12 and wounded dozens more during a midnight premier of the new Batman movie Friday.

Meyers told the paper that just hours after the shooting when he arrived at work later Friday morning, 15-20 people were waiting for the store to open.

Calling Monday "probably the busiest Monday all year," he said the store's firearms training classes filled up for the next three weeks, something that hasn't happened all year long, the Post said.

"A lot of it is people saying, 'I didn't think I needed a gun, but now I do,' " Meyers said. "When it happens in your backyard, people start reassessing — 'Hey, I go to the movies.'"

The paper reported that between Friday and Sunday, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm — a 43 percent increase over the previous Friday through Sunday and a 39 percent jump over those same days on the first weekend of July.

Friday saw the largest spike - 1,216 checks.

Background checks are required in Colorado before anyone may legally purchase a firearm.

Earlier massacres have sparked similar spikes in gun purchases, the paper reported. When U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in January 2011, background checks for gun sales in Arizona shot up 60 percent over the same date a year earlier.

Virginia saw a similar spike in 2007 in response to a shooting rampage on the campus of Virginia Tech.

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