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However, gun control advocates warned against letting alarm and anxiety override the need for safety.

Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, told ABC News that gun groups and stores use fear to drive up sales.

\"We've seen that time and again after natural disasters,\" Watts said.

Sandy Phillips, the founder of Survivors Empowered whose daughter, Jessi Ghawi, died in the Aurora movie theater shooting in 2012, told ABC News that \"buying more guns is a reckless response to the virus.\"

\"You can't shoot a virus, so what are you going to do, shoot your fellow citizens because they have toilet paper when you don't?\" Phillips said.

Phillips also hypothesized that there may be an increase in suicides, domestic violence shootings and accidental shootings \"because children are home from school and they always know where the guns are kept.\"

This buying frenzy isn't just occurring in Colorado, but all over the country, The Associated Press reported.

\"PHOTO:
Ringo H.w. Chiu/AP, FILE
PHOTO: People wait in a line to enter a gun store in Culver City, Calif., March 15, 2020.
>

Jay Wallace, owner of Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Georgia, told the AP that ammunition sales had increased more than five times the usual numbers.

Gun sales typically rise during election years, but nearly 350,000 more were sold in January and February than in those months in 2016, according to AP.

What to know about the coronavirus:

Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.

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