Across the Pond

Question: if a gunman gets out his Glock pistol, goes on a shooting spree in a shopping center in Tucson, Arizona, kills six people, injures 13 others - who profits? Answer: a company in Austria. I find this ironic but first some data. According to a Bloomberg news article published last Tuesday "one-day sales of handguns in Arizona jumped 60 percent to 263 on Jan. 10 compared with 164 the corresponding Monday a year ago". This was the second-biggest increase of any state in the country. On the same day sales rose by 65 percent in Ohio, by 16 percent in California, and by 33 percent in New York. The nationwide increase was five percent. The reason for the rise in sales? Incidents such as last weekend's spark anxiety that gun laws could become more restrictive which in turn makes people want to stock up. Arizona gun dealers noted last week that semiautomatic fire weapons of the type gunman Jared Loughner used in Tucson - it was a Glock 19 - were among the biggest sell...