As mass gun violence continues to rattle communities nationwide, the owner of Simpsonville Gun and Pawn, Mark Teal, believes the sign will boost sales, while acknowledging there may be a touch of politics to it as well.
"It's mainly just to sell guns, but there's a little bit of political connotation to it also," Teal told WNCN.
On Sunday, President Obama called for congressional action to put a ban on gun purchases by people who appear on the TSA "no-fly list."
He also urged US legislators to ban assault weapons like the ones used in Wednesday's San Bernardino attack that took the lives of 14 and injured 21.
But Teal, like many Americans, doesn't believe tighter gun laws will stem the violence. He slammed Obama for his proposal, which he believes will deprive Americans of their constitutional right to bear arms. The dangers ordinary Americans face, Teal says, don't touch the White House.
"I just think it's strange that he has 24-hour security, his children and wife have 24-hour security with armed guards everywhere they go [and] it's OK for them to have armed guards, but it's not OK for us to protect ourselves," he said.
A combination of fears — for personal safety, and that the government will take Americans' guns — are what drives Teal's business.
"When things like this happen — Sandy Hook and with this in San Bernardino — a lot of people who have never thought about owning a firearm start thinking about it," he said.
After all, as a recent report published in the Intercept revealed, the gun industry views mass shootings like the one that occurred Wednesday in Southern California as lucrative business opportunities, according to industry executives.
The numbers speak for themselves. Major US gun retailers increased their shares dramatically just after Obama's address on Sunday, seeing a more than 10% rise in stocks since last week's San Bernardino massacre.
Obama says no one on no-fly list should be able to buy guns. What happened to gun stocks: https://t.co/XOFdBgAeWz pic.twitter.com/VRT29x0zhl
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) December 7, 2015
This year's Black Friday saw a record-breaking number of firearms background checks on November 27, when the FBI processed 185,345 of them — roughly two per second. That same day, a gunman killed three people and wounded nine others in an attack at a Planned Parenthood office in Colorado.
The Second Amendment of the US Constitution protects an individual's right to possess firearms and to use firearms in traditionally lawful purposes. But advocates of gun rights and supporters of gun control have debated the true intent of the amendment for more than a century. And as the number of victims of gun violence in the US continues to climb, they'll likely continue to do so.
