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“People are seeing what’s happening in the U.S. and they’re saying ‘nothing’s going to be coming from the U.S.,’ ” Cox said Tuesday.

They also fear a tumbling Canadian dollar will make U.S.-made merchandise much more expensive in the coming months.

Panic-buying, he said, isn’t justified because plenty of inventory remains at hand.

“The supply chain is robust,” said Cox.

But Cox said there is an element of survivalism in the face of the crisis that’s already seen many people panic-purchasing at grocery retailers out of fear of what’s in store.

“There is obviously the guy saying, ‘I’m worried for my safety,’ ” he said, adding sales in recent weeks have jumped by 25 to 30 per cent.

But he said the public shouldn’t be concerned because most of those customers are already firearms owners who jumped through numerous regulatory hoops to possess guns.

At a northwest Calgary Canadian Tire store on Tuesday, an employee said “lots” of firearms-related items have been sold recently, as a man in a face mask perused ammunition stocked inside a glass cabinet.

At the city’s Black Box Customs, at 4420 75th Ave. S.E., a staffer said firearms sales haven’t increased recently, though “some people have bought some extra (firearms) magazines.”

But the operators of the Sportsmen’s Den in Red Deer said they’ve seen sales pick up noticeably, driven partly by those “who think the world’s going to come to an end,” said one employee.

Store owner Dale Malin said firearms purchases have increased threefold over normal levels in recent weeks, though the total numbers aren’t large.

Alongside shotguns, a popular item is the Chinese- or Russian-produced SKS rifle and the ammunition that goes with it, he said.

“I had 20 or 30 cases of ammunition that went pretty fast,” said Malin.

He said fear of social disruption plays “a bit” of a role in the heightened demand.

According to the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program, there were 2,026,011 firearms licences in Canada in 2015.

From 2000 to 2016, there were 13,168 firearms deaths in Canada, 75 per cent of those by suicide and 20 per cent homicide, says Statistics Canada.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn