The world’s largest supplier of firearms on Thursday said that it had experienced “unprecedented” demand for AR-15 ammunition magazines after a similar weapon was used to slaughter 20 6- and 7-year-old children at a school in Connecticut.

In a statement on the AR15.com forum, Brownells spokesperson Jason Corpus apologized to customers for delays in fulfilling their orders of assault weapon clips.

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“I wanted to take a minute to shed some insight on the magazine situation if i can,” Corpus wrote. “First of all I wanted to offer an apology for the situation that Pacs and anyone else encountered with magazines being ‘In-Stock’ and Backordered moments later… the demand for magazines actually exceeded the ability for the system to keep up with the volume that was being ordered.”

Corpus explained that the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) computer system had been flooded with orders after the tragedy in Connecticut.

“To shed some more light on the magazine situation at present, it really has been unprecedented in the last 5 days,” he continued. “[W]e sold the ‘average demand’ equivalent of about 3 1/2 years worth of PMAGS, and and an even greater amount of our Brownells magazines. We’re working like crazy to get these orders to you as quickly as possible.”

Corpus later corrected his statement to clarify that the 3.5 years worth of magazines had actually been sold in 72 hours — or three days — instead of five days.

“On the Brownells 30 and 20 round magazines, we’re still flowing those into the system daily, and are producing those at 100% capacity as well,” he said. “We ordered more material yesterday that will allow us to up production again in the coming weeks.”

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A search of Brownells’ online store showed on Friday that the top 10 most popular AR-15 clips — including the Surefire high-capacity 100 round magazine — were out of stock.

[Photo: Shuttertock.com]

(h/t: Guns.com)