Sandy Hook Shooting Sparks Jump In Firearms Sales

The FBI is reporting a big jump in the number of background checks they ran for gun purchases in December, well above the previous month and also well above December of 2011:

The FBI reported a record-high number of background checks for firearms purchases in the month of December, in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

According to a report from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System out Wednesday, there were about 2.8 million background checks on those seeking to purchase firearms last month. That total was 2 million the previous month, and 1.9 million in December of 2011, news accounts noted.

Meanwhile, it seems as though the “gun control” hysteria didn’t survive the Christmas season, at least as measured in media mentions as this chart from Politico’s Dylan Byers shows:

Gun control proponents thought they had an opening after Sandy Hook. Certainly the opportunists rushed to leverage the tragedy into a new push for restricting gun rights. But, as is usually the case, they lost the gun control debate. Because facts, and logic, just aren’t on their side.