A mentally unstable young man with guns committed a tragic elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that claimed 26 souls.

As with any mass shooting, the reaction is a swift kneejerk, in one direction or the other. With talks of gun-control laws, particularly regarding firearms like the AR-15, the weapon used in Newtown, gun sales rise fairly dramatically. 

In fact, they can’t keep them on the shelves.

Mac’s Market, Libby Sports and other Lincoln County and Flathead County gun merchants are literally out of semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 and the Ruger Mini 14. Nationally, the facts are the same.

“I doubt we’ll see any for quite some time,” said Gary Halvorsen, manager of Libby Sports. “Maybe a month is what I’d guess.”

Sportsmen and firearm aficionados looking to buy a semi-automatic in the wake of several mass shootings are finding it difficult, if not impossible to get one now. 

Halvorsen said Libby Sports sold out of all its semi-automatic “assault-rifle” type guns in just a day and a half after the Newtown shooting.

Jason Fosgate, the gun salesman at Mac’s Market, said people who had been dithering on their purchase for several months came to buy the weapons immediately after the shootings.

For local merchants, the increase isn’t a surprise.

“Any time there is any sort of uncertainty, there is a rush,” Fosgate said. “It’s sort of like silver and gold. It’s an investment. Like gold, a gun doesn’t really change in price.”

Fosgate has sold out of his stock of AR-15s, as has Ardell Filler of Libby Sports.

“Sales are up 148 percent,” Filler said of his December gun sales. “I’m not sure why, I guess some people think that gun laws are going to come down the tube.”

Much of the fear in the independent-minded Libby community is that with a Democrat in the White House, there could be new legislation to limit firearm sales.

Doug Johnson, a semi-retired gunsmith in Troy, has seen it happen before.

“It seems to happen every time there is an election and people aren’t sure,” he said.   

President Clinton signed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban during his first term, in 1994. The National Rifle Association decried the bill as a cosmetic power grab that blamed the guns and not the shooters.

The Columbine High School massacre happened at exactly the halfway point of the 10-year bill, which dissolved in 2004.

President Obama has not publicly urged Congress to pass new gun legislation, but his press secretary has conceded the president is open to stricter gun control.

Montana Democratic Sens Jon Tester and Max Baucus have stated they are receptive to discussion.

   Fosgate was adamant that the AR-15 makes a superb and fun-to-use hunting rifle. He said that although he can’t keep them on the shelves, his highest volume has been in sales of beginners hunting rifles.

So, while the country enters another tortuous round of gun-control debate, the local merchants just aim to provide.

“This happened when Obama was first elected,” Filler said of his gun sales. “I’ve always said Obama’s our best salesman.”