Gun Sales Soaring - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Gun Sales Soaring

The Newtown, Connecticut school shooting tragedy has spurred sharp criticism of gun control laws in the country.

As more lawmakers discuss the issue, gun stores across the country are experiencing an all-out-assault on their inventory.

At the Sportsman's Loft in Minot, dealers say the main focus so far has been on the "modern sportsman's rifles", those often dubbed assault rifles, and high capacity magazines.

Tyler Burton with the Loft, says the run to buy before a possible ban is happening all over the country and not just North Dakota.

(Tyler Burton, Sportsmans Loft) "Obviously the FBI, and NICS is extremely busy right now, we've ah, how long you've been on hold, hour and a half, Clays been on hold for an hour and a half just trying to get through to make a phone call for a background check that's how extremely busy they are right now. We have a stack of forms just built up waiting to be called in."

Burton says unfortunately, the gun industry is being shrouded by events like that in Connecticut and paints an ugly picture on the vast majority of law biding citizens.

(Tyler Burton, Sportsmans Loft) "It's always the two percenters you know, two percent do 98 percent of the bad stuff."

Burton says if a ban does go into affect on the guns dubbed "assault rifles", it would likely make a significant impact on their business.