September 10th, 2025. The date of Charlie Kirk’s murder. The day after, it was on everyone’s minds. How could something like that happen? Who was responsible? It owned every media headline. It saddened many, including Caleb Goldsberry, who sat in his small gun store in Bloomington, Indiana, U.S. Defense Solutions, already well aware of the impact it would have on his shop.

How did he know? He’s seen it happen before. He saw it back when school shootings started to accelerate in the United States in 2010. Those shootings resulted in a drastic temporary increase in gun sales.

 

 

“It’s a double edged sword,” Goldsberry said, referring to the increase in business that coincides with the tragedy of a shooting.

And he’s not the only one to feel that way. Goldsberry’s U.S. Defense Solutions was actually the fourth gun store in the Bloomington area that I reached out to. The other three echoed Goldsberry’s sentiment to a tee. They expressed that it is fact that sales went up, but it was due to circumstances so distressing that none of them wanted to discuss it.

Shootings create fear. They create panic. People get scared.

“And they want something to be able to protect themselves,” Goldsberry said.

Smith and Wesson Brands closed up 6.7% the day after Kirk’s shooting. The majority of the time it is first time buyers jumping on the wave.

After most high profile shootings, politicians are quick to talk about guns laws and regulations. There are times when individuals who are prohibited from purchasing guns attempt to do so, but in Goldsberry’s experience they are easy to spot and never worthwhile.

 

However, it is in times like these, where Goldsberry is reminded of his love for gunsmithing. He is an avid hunter, and part of his passion is helping others take down game ethically. He uses his knowledge of guns and ammunition to lead to more painless deaths for animals.

While the horror that is high profile shootings does result in more gun sales, Goldsberry is using that opportunity to work on what he set out to do when he got into the business: make guns safer and help people defend themselves.