Sales of certain semi-automatic guns are on the rise in Northeast Ohio, after a gunman murdered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida.
Lawmaker in Washington want to limit who can buy those high-capacity rifles.
Democratic U.S. Senators spent more than 15 hours debating the issue on Wednesday. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy (D) said he convinced the Republican majority to hold votes on bills that would ban gun sales to suspected terrorists and expand background checks. Some even want a now-expired assault weapons ban reinstated.
Now, Diane Donnett, owner of the Stonewall gun shop in Broadview Heights, said sales of the AR-15 rifle are way up. She said normally she sells one a week, but midweek she’s already up to six sales.
The shooter in Florida used a different rifle, the Sig Sauer MCX, but the guns look similar and the AR-15 is less expensive and more widely known.
“I guess the surest way of clearing your shelves of something is to have somebody say, ‘Oh, they’re no longer going to make that.' and it’s out. It’s gone,” Donnett said.
Those rifles can hold a magazine with up to 30 bullets. Donnett said she still had plenty of AR-15’s in stock.
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