In August and September, Colorado gun purchases were 11% and 9% higher, respectively, than during the same time last year, CPR reports.

The first nine months of 2019, however, saw approximately 240,000 gun sales – 3% lower than 2018.

There is no reporting method of gun sales, so the data comes from background checks performed by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation at the point of sale. A 2013 analysis of market demand estimated a national average of 1.1 gun purchases per transaction.

Colorado gun sales tended to rise after mass shootings. Approximately 56,800 purchases occurred in December 2012, the month of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newton, Connecticut. That was the highest-demand month in Colorado for guns since at least 2001.

Gunmen in El Paso and Dayton murdered more than 30 people in August, when Colorado background checks reached their highest point since March.

A 2015 analysis from the Journal of Business & Economics Research found that the perceived threat of gun control under the Obama administration drove sales to the point where “it appears that firearms are among the most sensitive [products] to regulatory threats.”

Gun control proposals – including an assault weapons ban and mandatory buy-back program – became a point of debate in the current presidential campaign following the late-summer murders.

A spokesperson for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said that the agency “can’t definitively gauge the reasons for increases and decreases in the number of firearms background checks in Colorado,” adding that gun dealers would be in a better position to assess motivations.

As of 2013, researchers found that 34.3% of Colorado residents owned firearms, above the national average of 29%.