Christmas carols played as shoppers looked over the revolvers and handguns enclosed in glass at Tom’s Gun Shop off of Shorter Avenue in West Rome.

Tom Medlock has been open every Monday since the Nov. 6 election, he said. He said his store is traditionally closed on Mondays.

“There’s just been a spike in gun sales nationwide,” said Medlock, who has been in business in that store since 1972.

And Medlock’s gun shop was not the only busy place on Monday.

Probate Judge Steve Burkhalter said about 12 or 13 people came into his office to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon, twice as many as he normally sees on a given day.

Georgia law allows anyone who legally owns a firearm to have it in his or her home, place of business or vehicle without a permit.

A permit, issued by the probate judge’s office, is required to carry a concealed weapon. A person has to be 21 and pass a background check to obtain the permit, which is valid for five years.

Normally, there are about five or six people on a typical Monday asking for concealed weapon permits, according to Burk­halter.

“I expect this to continue,” Burkhalter said of the increase.

Since the murders of 26 people — 20 of them under the age of 7 — at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Friday, people on both sides of the debate about gun ownership have been taking place in the media and on social media.

The guns used by the 20-year-old shooter to murder 20 children ages six and seven, six staff members and his mother, were purchased legally by his mother, according to reports.

The shooter reportedly had a Bushmaster .223-caliber lightweight rifle, which police say was used in the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School and was also carrying a Glock 10 mm and a Sig Sauer 9 mm.

Some think it could be behind Monday’s surge in sales and permit requests.

“They are trying to make sure they “get their right” before that right is taken away from (by) the government,” Melody Tolbert McDermott said. “Too much government control, I think. Guns don’t kill people, demented people with guns kill people.”