Gun sales surge across the country as the Coronavirus shuts down the majority of businesses. Many of guns being sold are to first time gun owners.
There are legitimate concerns over personal safety as police and the justice system changes how they’re doing business.
Several communicates have been releasing prisoners from jail claiming it is to help slow the spread of the virus. Police departments are also reducing the number of arrests over minor crimes, many giving citations instead.
People are stocking up on essential items such as food, water and other items they will need. The increase in gun and ammo sales is breaking records as more Americans look for ways to protect themselves during the pandemic.
According to The Guardian:
“More than 3.7m total firearm background checks were conducted through the FBI’s background check system in March, the highest number on record in more than 20 years. An estimated 2.4m of those background checks were conducted for gun sales, according to adjusted statistics from a leading firearms industry trade group. That’s an 80% increase compared with the same month last year, the trade group said.“
Several states and localities initially closed gun stores along with other businesses and were met with lawsuits.
Although the states claimed the measures are designed to protect the public, they may also go against Second Amendment protections, legal experts told Newsweek.
“There is a constitutional right at issue, and the question is whether states need to have carveouts for those constitutionally protected activities when they issue blanket orders as a result of an emergency,” Jake Charles, the executive director of the Center for Firearms Law at Duke Law School, told Newsweek.
Many opponents of the 2nd Amendment have also reconsidered their position and are now learning it isn’t as easy to get a gun as they thought. They were shocked when they discovered they couldn’t order a gun online. Omaha Outdoors posted on their website an article addressing the issue:
“Here at Omaha Outdoors, we’ve been inundated with inquiries from out-of-state folks – many from California – asking if we can ship them a gun directly. The answer is, of course, no. Despite what politicians and many in popular media claim, you can’t buy a gun online and have it shipped to your house.”
The article also says they’re not alone in noticing that usually anti-gun people are suddenly very interested in having guns. On Twitter, Robert Evans wrote, “The sheer number of normally anti-gun people who have reached out to me about buying a firearm in the last week is wild.”
President Trump recently declared gun stores and firearms related companies as essential businesses during the nationwide shutdown. Gun sales surge in those areas once many of the stores reopened.