Americans Fearing Weapons Ban Load Up On Guns and Ammo

Thousands of Americans are rushing to their local gun stores to buy high-powered rifles and ammunition in a bid to thwart a potential assault weapons ban in the wake of last week’s Connecticut school massacre, Fox News reports.

At a Cincinnati gun show, "sales were through the roof on Saturday," Joe Eaton of Ohio’s Buckeye Firearms Association told the network.

"People were buying everything they could out of fear the president would try to ban certain guns and high-capacity magazines."

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And in Colorado, an official at Colorado Bureau of Investigation told Fox the agency processed more than 4,200 background checks on Saturday, the day after the shootings.

The hot-selling model is the AR-15 – the same firearm used by gunman Adam Lanza — along with the powerful .223 ammunition it uses.

More than three million Americans own an AR-15, which gun store owners say buyers like because “it's the civilian version of the fearsome M-16 used by the U.S. military,’’ CBS News reports.

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"You just see it and you want it,’’ gun store owner Michael Timlin told CBS News. “It's just the same reason why someone stays on line for 25 hours to buy an Apple iPhone."

As Americans hurried to arm themselves, several Newtown, Conn., residents drove to Washington early Tuesday morning to meet with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which has worked for years to reform the nation’s gun industry, CNN reports.