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© unkGlock Pistol
When is rising consumer demand bad for America?

When it comes in the form of guys buying guns used in killings as blood-sport collectors' trophies.

That's what happened in Arizona after the Tucson massacre, when the sales of the Glock handgun used by the killer soared:
Greg Wolff, the owner of two Arizona gun shops, told his manager to get ready for a stampede of new customers after a Glock-wielding gunman killed six people at a Tucson shopping center on Jan. 8.

Wolff was right. Instead of hurting sales, the massacre had the $499 semi-automatic pistols - popular with police, sport shooters and gangsters - flying out the doors of his Glockmeister stores in Mesa and Phoenix.

"We're at double our volume over what we usually do," Wolff said two days after the shooting spree that also left 14 wounded, including Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
In fact, the specific model - the Glock 19 - with which Jared Lee Loughner caused so much bloodshed, was in particular demand.

Gun fans aren't buying the Glock in such surging numbers after Tucson because they all of a sudden need a gun. What they want is a gun that proved itself so powerful by causing so much death and injury: they want a blood-shedding firearm that allows them a vicarious thrill.

There's a morbid pathology there that America doesn't have the guts to deal with yet.