Even with another mass shooting in the news, gun sales continue their upward trend. Newly released FBI data show this past September was the busiest September ever for gun background checks–with more than 1.7 million. That’s a 23% jump compared to September 2014.

The same holds true for Alabama–with more than 56-thousand checks it was also the busiest September ever for gun sales in this state. Alabama say a 25-percent jump in September compared to the same time last year.

More calls for gun control often result more gun buying–that happened after the shootings Lafayette, Charleston and Aurora. In the aftermath of Oregon, calls for more gun control may lead to more gun sales.

With sales on the rise fewer people are visiting local sheriff’s offices every year to renew or get a new conceal carry permit–both Mobile and Baldwin counties have seen substantial drops in annual visits for conceal carry. This suggests more people are getting multi-year permits—more people have permits than ever. The overall number of valid permits is on the rise. Mobile County had a 4% increase in the number of weapon permits from April to October of this year.

The higher gun sales may bolster an argument second amendment advocates have made for years—more guns = less crime. FBI stats say violent crime in the u-s continues to drop from 2009 to 2013. Each year has seen a rise in the total number of nationwide background checks.

The trend of gun sales going up after a high profile shooting is true in the most part in the September 2015 numbers. Overall gun background checks are up in September 2015 compared to last month. Alabama is one of the few states where gun background checks went down following the incident in Roanoke. This may be more a function of a seasonal drop in gun demand than anything else. The period from August to September generally shows a drop in gun background checks each year.

http://wkrg.com/2015/10/02/gun-sales...control-calls/