Arizona's gun-buying binge: By the numbers

In the aftermath of last weekend's shootings, residents of the Grand Canyon state are buying firearms at record rates. Here's a look at the arms race

Handgun sales in Arizona following the shooting were up 63 percent from the corresponding period in 2010.
(Image credit: Corbis)

After Jared Lee Loughner allegedly killed six people and wounded 13 others in Tucson last Saturday, the national discussion turned again to gun-control, albeit with little expectation of change. Saturday's rampage has already had a tangible effect, however: Americans, and particularly Arizonans, are buying more guns. (Watch an al Jazeera report about rising gun sales.) Since Saturday, sales of glocks (the weapon Loughner reportedly used) and other firearms have surged in the state — a reaction that's consistent with the aftermaths of other much-publicized shootings such as 2007's Virginia Tech attacks. "When something like this happens," says one Arizona gun-store owner quoted by Bloomberg, "people get worried that the government is going to ban stuff." Here's a look at Arizona's gun-buying binge by the numbers:

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