Has the rise in violence across our country spiked nationwide gun sales?
The FBI reports this Black Friday, more Americans had their backgrounds checked purchasing guns than any other day on record: more than 185,000 people.
And with violence both locally and nationwide, gun shop owners say it's easy to make that connection, even though there's no real evidence to back it up.
The images from the Paris attacks and closer to home, the San Bernardino shooting are hard for Americans to forget.
One gun shop owner said it's attacks like these that could partially be behind the recent spike in gun sales.
"I just think a lot of the headline-type stories about violence and things going on in the world and locally are definitely driving some of it," Travis Brunson of Guns on 41 said.
"A lot of people want to take responsibility for their own safety because just like in these shooting incidents, you're really kind of on your own until hopefully help arrives, and even then it could be over," he added.
Brunson said he's even seeing several people, especially older, who are new to guns coming in to make a purchase.
"I had one particular couple that was in about two months ago. They were actually victims of a home invasion and again, weren't gun people, and they were definitely taking steps to protect themselves," he said.
Brunson told Four in Your Corner's Lisa Greenberg he first noticed an increase in sales the second week in November: right around the time of the Paris attacks, though it's hard to say if that's the cause.
Gun stores in Naples also reported a similar surge.
One owner of Naples Gun Range and Emporium, Annabel Bleicher, said their in-store sales mirror the national trend.
She also said there's no evidence to prove it, but violent attacks do create a buzz.
"It's a social trend basically when things like this happen, when there's a federal election taking place and a drive for gun control, it spikes gun sales," Bleicher said.
While gun sales are up now, Brunson said he saw the biggest increase after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in 2012.
