Article by Stephen Gutowski in "The Washington Free Beacon":
Gun sales exploded across the United States as the coronavirus pandemic spread, with retailers experiencing the highest sales volume in recorded history.
More than 2.5 million guns were sold in March as fears over the effects of the coronavirus spread, according to an analysis of FBI background check data released Wednesday by Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting (SAAF). The buying craze marked the busiest month on record for gun stores, even as some faced shutdown orders from state and local authorities. The record-setting monthly sales nearly doubled the 1.4 million guns sold in March 2019.
A separate analysis from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms industry's trade group, reached the same conclusion."Our adjusted numbers are the largest month on record," Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the group, told the Washington Free Beacon.
Concerns about the coronavirus—which has resulted in the release of certain prisoners, reduced enforcement of certain laws, and reduced police force numbers—drove Americans to their local gun stores and online ammunition dealers at a pace unseen before by many in the industry. The rush has been exacerbated in some states by the closure of gun stores. The high demand from Americans in the time of crisis has been repeatedly cited by gun-rights groups as they've sought to challenge shutdown orders in court.
Source: Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting
Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second
Amendment Foundation, which has filed multiple suits against closures
across the country, said he was not surprised by the record sales.
"This is no surprise," he said in an email.
"With a major uncharted health crisis that could result in a collapse
of social order. With criminal inmates being let out of prison. With
attempts to shut down gun stores and close down the ability of people to
obtain firearms and ammunition for self-defense, [this is] what you
would expect."
Oliva said the numbers are proof more
Americans than ever are putting a high value on their gun rights as the
country faces the unknown.
"The figures are simply
eye-popping," he said. "Retailers have been telling us that the
overwhelming majority of those buying firearms over the last month have
been first-time gun owners. This puts to rest America's thoughts on
gun-control ideas."
The SAAF and NSSF reports are based
on raw numbers of background checks run through the FBI's National
Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The groups use labeling
by the FBI to determine which background checks are related to actual
gun sales and which are conducted for gun-carry permits or other
reasons. The results do not represent a one-to-one sales number because
not all gun sales in the United States require a NICS check and some
NICS checks can cover the sale of multiple firearms. It is, however, the
most accurate estimate available since nearly all sales conducted by
licensed gun dealers must go through a NICS check.
Jurgen Brauer, chief economist for
SAAF, said that while the numbers were expected to show a large
coronavirus-related sales boom, they also indicate that inventory is
likely low across the firearms industry. He expects prices to spike in
April as gun manufacturers and stores work to replenish the shelves.
"Much of the industry's inventory
will have been depleted, so that we anticipate that weapons and
ammunition prices increased as well," Brauer said in a statement. "The
spurt in firearms sales in March 2020 was particularly notable for its
handgun component: The ratio of handguns to long-guns sold now stands at
a record 1.84, the highest ratio since the introduction of the NICS
checks in late 1998."
Oliva said the sales were evidence of how many Americans are preparing for whatever may come.
"Americans across the country chose
to exercise their right to lawfully purchase a gun when their safety
became more than a rhetorical question," he told the Free Beacon.