Buffalo shooting followed tripling of gun sales in 30 years, ATF figures reveal

Gun sales in the US have soared in recent years as the nation struggles to come to terms with the latest mass shooting, a horrific racist attack in Buffalo.

According to new figures from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the manufacture of firearms has tripled in two decades, and legal sales have risen sharply as well.

Officials in New York confirmed that Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old accused of the Buffalo mass murder, legally obtained the AR-15 style rifle believed to be the weapon used in the attack from a New York guns store, despite being hospitalized last year for making a murder-suicide threat.

Officials have said ghost guns are contributing to the surge in gun-related killings. In California, ghost guns make up as many as half of weapons recovered at crime scenes.

She tweeted that her office would investigate 4chan, 8chan, Discord, Twitch and any other platforms the shooter used.

Gendron wrote that using a drill he had modified a lock on the weapon designed to prevent the use of an extended magazine. It is believed he fired 50 rounds during the two-minute attack. Ten people, predominantly Black, were killed and the assault was live-streamed on Twitch.