NEA gun sales skyrocket in response to war in Israel

ASH FLAT, Ark. (KAIT) - Gun retailers across the region, and even the country, are extremely busy.

Many believe the surge in gun sales is due to the war in Israel.

Retailers, like Sportsmans Edge in Ash Flat, are selling all types of firearms.

“They’re buying AR-15s, they’re buying handguns, self-defense type shotguns,” Owner Rob Simers said.

Simers said since the start of the war, he’s seen an increase in foot traffic.

“That caused us to get really busy. We sold all the AR-15s we had in one day a couple weeks ago,” Simers explained.

But it’s not just firearms that are seeing a boom in sales, but also ammunition.

“This also affected the 5.56 ammunition and the 9mm, which makes it hard to get now and the price went up on all of it a little bit,” Simers said.

At times, Simers has had trouble getting certain firearms and ammunition and says that the problem may only get worse as the war continues.

“I expect that it will get worse. The price and availability of all the NATO rounds, which are like 9mm, 5.56, 7.62, anything that is a NATO round. It will probably get hard to get again,” he said.

Simers’ advice to those considering purchasing a firearm is to do it now.

“I tell people, if it’s sitting on the rack and you want it, you had better buy it. This has happened time and time again. A customer sees something that he wants and comes back two days later and it’s gone,” Simers added.

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