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Gun sales are soaring across the country. The FBI reported earlier this week requests for background checks skyrocketed 20 percent on Black Friday over the same day last year. A noted gun rights advocate says zombies are just one reason why.

“There is I guess, you would call it a cottage industry that’s sprung up in the last couple of years,” Dave Workman of the Second Amendment Foundation and editor of The Gun Mag said in an interview with Ross and Burbank.

He’s not kidding.

“A lot of people appear to be really enthralled by this. I’ve seen lines of zombie targets, I know one or two ammunition companies have introduced boxes, lines of cartridges they called zombie cartridges, shotgun shells and rifle shells.”

But clearly other more serious worries are playing a much bigger factor. Workman is co-author of a book called “America Fights Back,” and says more people are arming themselves for protection.

“They’re defending themselves because they know that even though the police try to do a real good job…when seconds count as they say the police are minutes are away. People have decided ‘Hey I can’t wait for the cavalry to come to my rescue I’ve got to defend myself and my family and my home,'” he said.

The economy and fears about the feds changing gun policy after President Obama’s re-election are also sparking sales, Wade Gaughran of Wade’s Eastside Guns in Bellevue tells KING 5.

“I think (Obama’s) going to try and make something happen this time,” said Gauhran, who reported Black Friday gun sales shot up 30-35% over his expectations.

Workman agreed. And he said while he can’t be sure, he’s confident the growing gun ownership is helping to cut crime because more “intelligent” criminals know more people are packing.

“We’ve had earlier this year several incidents where burglars and at-home break-in guys were shot, a couple of them were killed.”

The numbers seem to support his argument. In Virginia, for example, gun ownership soared 73% between 2006-2011. Over the same period gun related violent crimes actually fell 24 percent.