Fears Over Mass Shootings Prompt Some Unlikely Shoppers To Go In Search Of Guns
NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- The mass shootings and the terror attack in Paris have reignited a heated debate over gun control.
As CBS2's Lou Young reported, the topic seems to be on everyone's mind.
The morning after another mass shooting a suburbanite went shopping for something she never once considered owning.
"It's odd in a way. I didn't expect the world to turn out this way," Marlena Tsagaris said.
Few of us did. The 'new normal' of mass killings at home and overseas has many asking tough questions.
"What's to stop it? Is it going to start happening in our neighborhoods, in our towns, in our schools?" Fran Kessler said.
"It's just so sad that this is where our country has gone and nobody's doing anything about it," Benna Struber added, "It's so clear. It has to be gun control."
But one American's clarity approaches another American's sacred cow. The irony being that weaponry can simultaneously be considered part of the problem, and to some, part of the solution.
"We've had a couple of elderly women come in over time, actually in the last week-and-a-half; we've had two come through wanting a shotgun for home defense," gun salesman Simon Oram said.
"Everybody has the right to bear arms, but I don't think enough, the government's not doing enough to secure with the laws," Joey Tinelli said.
Only in American where you can bemoan the easy availability of guns while shopping for one.
"The events everywhere, the ability of people who could never pass a background check to get guns, to present themselves at any moment. I guess it's not so strange, the feeling of defending yourself and your family," Tsagaris said.
You could call us 'armed and uncertain.'
Gun laws in New York and Connecticut were tightened after the Sandy Hook school massacre three years ago, but police complain that most illegal guns in our area come from states where gun laws are more lax.