Sales up at Southfield gun shop after Sandy Hook tragedy

By Amy Lange
Fox 2 News

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WJBK) -- "A majority of Americans support banning the sale of military-style assault weapons," President Barack Obama said Wednesday.

The president is talking gun control, the possible banning of assault weapons and the need for education and mental health in the wake of the massacre of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

As the flag flies at half staff outside Action Impact in Southfield, inside guns are going off the shelves in record numbers.  Since Friday, sales there have been four to five times what they see on a regular day.

"How many would you normally sell in a day versus what you're selling," I asked owner Bill Kucyk.

"Three a day to 15 a day," he answered.

Kucyk said people are buying for two reasons -- fear for their safety, but maybe even more so than that fear the government will ban guns.  That's what Art Silver thinks.

"People are afraid you're going to take them away.  Also people are afraid that you're going outlaw them," he remarked.  "A lot of people are making investments believe it or not."

It's big business and it's controversial.  Most people purchasing weapons on this day didn't want to talk on camera, but Kucyk, never one to back down, thinks the country is going the wrong direction in trying to prevent another tragedy, another act of domestic terrorism.

"If this was a terrorist organization from a foreign country, we would be reacting different and our leaders would be reacting different," he said.  "The only way we're going to prevent that is with like force.  Sitting around a campfire singing 'Kumbaya' is not going to do it."

President Obama has set January as the deadline for a set of proposals to address the nation's gun violence.