As fears about the future mount, more and more American citizens have decided that a gun is a good tool to have in these uncertain times. Gun sales have been up since before any safety measures had been taken regarding the Chinese Virus, but within ten days of the first American case, the rush was on.
We told you initially how ammo.com was reporting that sales were up over 50%. But that was just the start! In less than ten days, their numbers were off the charts. Ammo.com reported that sales of ammunition were up more than 275% in a single week!
But gun store owners are saying that this Corona pandemic has outpaced anything they’ve ever seen. More than 9/11, more than any hurricane or natural disaster, and even more than during the Obama era.
Guns Can’t Stop A Virus, But They CAN Stop A Criminal!
Americans are paying no attention to the snarky leftist who says, “You can’t shoot a virus!” They know that you CAN use a gun to protect your family from looters or those who simply enjoy destruction when society is tipped off kilter. Americans haven’t forgotten how quickly things spun out of control in Baltimore several years ago, prompting their mayor to encourage police to step back and ‘give the rioters space to destroy.’
No offense, but most Americans don’t share that sentiment, and a gun is the number one way to keep from becoming a victim of looters or lawlessness.
Florida’s Gun Sales As Case Study
Alex Elenberg is the manager of a Charlie’s Armory in Florida. He said of the sales in their store, “Our sales are up 80 percent, with a huge increase in first-time buyers who are worried about martial law, economic collapse, unemployment, shortages, delinquents roaming the streets.”
It’s not just Charlie’s Armory that’s noticing the bump. In Florida, NICS background checks last Friday were 500% higher than last year on the same date, according to the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement. Last Friday, Floridians bought 13,192 guns in one single day. There were only 2,646 on the same date last year.
Lines Outside A California Gun Store Last Week
The numbers of NICS checks over the month of March are even better! From March 17th until March 21st, more than 56,600 background checks were processed! Only 11,842 were processed during the same week last year.
We love these numbers, since they’re a kick in the teeth for the anti-gun left. They like to pretend that gun owners are a crazy minority to be ignored, but these numbers show them to be lying pretty pathetically.
Another Florida gun store owner, Samuel Rivera, owner of Gunaholic in Hialeah, had even more good news: Most of his customers were first time gun owners, elderly folks, or women. He said, “The women and the elderly are tired of being victims, and afraid of getting robbed at the ATM or scammed at home.”
Why Such A Response?
None of this was limited to Florida, as gun stores across the country were selling out and didn’t know when they could get more merchandise in from swamped suppliers. Last weekend, gun sales were coming so fast they were bogging down the NICS system. The NICS system was already struggling since the FBI offices were short staffed due to sending employees home out of concern for the Corona Virus.
One major factor for the scope of the response is that unlike a hurricane that affects a limited area, or 9/11 where the terrorists were across the globe, this threat is invisible. And if it’s not in your neighborhood, it may be soon. As news came from urban areas first of quarantines, businesses being closed, grocery store shelves emptying in mere hours…folks realized that there aren’t enough cops in the world to keep order if things went sideways.
Then, as the laws were suspended right and left and entire states were put under what amounts to un-monitored house arrest, the threat seemed to grow from just a virus to the threat of Martial Law. Gun confiscation, food rationing and worse seemed more possible than ever.
Hopefully none of this gets any worse and we’ve turned a corner. But no matter what happens, hundreds of thousands of newly-purchased guns are giving American citizens some peace of mind.