Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Recent mass shootings in the United States have been followed by discussions of gun control. Last year, following the Parkland shooting, states and localities finally took action. We study whether the fear of gun control temporarily increased the demand for guns. As data on daily gun sales are not available, we focus on geo-location data that allow us to track individuals locations. We first test whether the Parkland mass shooting was followed by increased visitation to gun shows. We then examine whether the introduction and passage of gun control spurs additional visits to gun shows. We study the heterogeneity by gun story density and local gun shows.