The uncertainty of the pandemic and the nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd have helped stimulate the country’s appetite for guns.
One in five US households bought a gun from March 2020 to March 2022, according to NORC at the University of Chicago, a nonpartisan research institution. One in 20 Americans purchased a gun for the first time during that period.
“I’m not sure the chaos is over, and I feel that a lot of people have guns and that it would be good to have,” said Shelby, echoing many Americans anxious about the uncertain state of the country. “I’m a single female. I live on my own. Why not protect myself?
Given this fact, many states have decided to change their stance and have taken “radical measures” against the second amendment!
This however backfired in a spectacular way!
A new report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation says background checks for gun sales have surged in anti-gun states.
Mark Oliva, NSSF Managing Director of Public Affairs, noted, “April…[witnessed an] uptick of 1,369,296 FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) verifications.”
He suggested this increase “shows that there continues to be a steady appetite for lawful firearm ownership even as certain state governors and legislators are taking radical measures to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to possess firearms.”
Of particular interest to these buyers are rifles based on the AR or AK platforms (the extra scary aSsAulT riFleS).
Washington and Illinois, which have both banned said scary rifles in recent months, have seen huge increases in gun sales, as has Oregon.
“Washington state tallied 71,272 adjusted background checks in April 2023, compared to 49,641 in April 2022” and “Illinois posted a total of 39,954 adjusted background checks in April 2023, compared to 35,790 in April 2022,” Oliva said. (NSSF uses the phrase “adjusted background checks” to note checks which specifically apply to gun sales.)
And in Democrat-controlled Oregon, where more gun control is consistently pushed year after year, there were “43,574 adjusted background checks in April 2023, compared to 27,921 a year ago.”
Here’s a chart showing the past 23 years of gun sale data for the month of April:
OPINION: This article contains commentary which reflects the author’s opinion
