With the astonishing rate of flag sales, as well as donations of both money and blood pouring out from the Memphis area to support victims in New York and Washington, D.C., it seems to some that the process of healing and resolution has begun.
But another item has also become a hot commodity for some Memphis residents in the wake of Tuesday’s attack — guns and ammunition.
According to several firearms dealers around the city, gun sales have sharply increased since last week, and are still climbing.
“We have been wall-to-wall with customers since Tuesday, and people are purchasing a lot of guns,” said Bill Langham, manager of Guns and Ammo on Summer Ave.
Langham said gun sales at his store have almost doubled from this time last year.
“Many people are buying the AR-15 assault rifle,” Langham said. The AR-15 is the civilian version of the M-16 assault rifle used by American soldiers in the Vietnam War. “We have also sold an unusual amount of ammo,” he said.
Jay Hill, the owner of Classic Arms in Cordova said his business tripled on Tuesday, but has steadily decreased since — though it still remains higher than usual.
“People are thinking about six months down the road. If there are more attacks on American soil, they’ll need it for their own protection,” said Hill.
Hill said he is mainly selling bulk ammunition and handguns, as well as a few assault rifles.
Bronson Tommy Sporting Goods has also seen an increase in sales, mainly in ammunition. One worker there attributed this to a fear of looting in the future if chaos breaks out in other parts of the country.
While privately owned gun shops sold a great deal of ammunition this past week in Memphis, K-Mart pulled its ammunition stock from the shelves following the terrorist attack.
The threat of war also caused a rush on gas stations due to the fear of increased prices and, according to some, the possible inaccessibility of the fuel in the future.
“We get a great deal of oil from the Middle East, and after what happened Tuesday, I really didn’t know what to expect — so I filled up every gas can I could find, to be on the safe side,” said Richard Swanson, a Memphis businessman.
Though the prices did increase Tuesday at some stations in Memphis, prices have since returned to normal levels as federal officials threatened to take “harsh” legal action against anyone found guilty of price gouging.
David Mason, U of M political science professor, said he believes the rush on gas was a reaction to the speculated Middle East location of the terrorist perpetrators.
“If the terrorists were supposedly from Colombia, I don’t think people would have rushed to the gas stations,” Mason said.
Another by-product of Tuesday’s attack was a huge spike in sales of bottled water and emergency supplies, such as batteries and generators.
In addition, some specialty stores found their shelves empty by the end of last week.
“We have sold out of items that usually remain on shelves for years,” said an employee of an army surplus store, who wished to remain anonymous. “We sold out of canteens and waterproof lighting wicks in about two hours. It was pretty crazy.”
