Published reports as Christmas looms remove any doubt about America’s shifting attitude on guns; more people are buying and according to an article in Forbes, it has been “a record-breaking year for manufacturers who can’t make enough guns and ammunition to meet demand.”
Writing for Forbes, reporter Aaron Smith confirm something the firearms community has been saying for months, “Sales of guns and ammunition have been torrid since the COVID-19 pandemic began to sweep through America in March, infecting more than 18 million Americans to date and killing more than 322,000, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center.”
Back in June, Alan Gottlieb at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, one of the nation’s leading grassroots gun rights organizations—observed, “We’ve seen this with generations of new gun owners who may never have had any previous experience with firearms. Many of them discover a sense of empowerment that allows them, maybe for the first time, to understand they can take care of themselves, and that they are responsible for their own safety.”
Writing at RealMoney (TheStreet.com), Jonathan Heller reports, “Gun demand has soared this year, leaving supplies short, and that was very evident once again in the depleted Cabela’s gun inventory. In addition, ammo shelves were nearly empty, many types of ammunition are nearly impossible to find, but there was an interesting dynamic that played during our visit.”
With less than 30 days remaining before Democrat Joe Biden is due to be sworn in as the next president under a lingering cloud of suspicion about vote fraud, many people appear to be buying guns out of concerns over Biden’s gun control stance.
The RealMoney story quoted Mark Oliva with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, who estimated 8 million people bought guns for the first time this year. The same report said the FBI’s National Instant Check System (NICS) logged 35.75 million checks for firearms purchases through the end of November. This month’s sales will likely set a new record.
Writer Heller observed with no small degree of irony, “While it’s not surprising that the prospect of gun legislation is helping drive demand and arming more Americans, it is ironic that the politicians have still not figured that out. We saw it big time during the Obama Administration, and I still consider him to be the all-time greatest gun salesman, a well-deserved moniker he would no doubt hate.”
Not surprisingly, gun prohibitionists are trying to link the record gun sales with a rise in homicides. As noted by the Forbes article, the Gun Violence Archive says there were 42,299 “deaths from gun violence” as of Wednesday, but at least the article acknowledged the figure includes homicides, unintentional fatalities, defensive gun use and suicide. But Forbes continues to lump them all under the catch-all phrase “gun violence,” a term invented by the gun prohibition lobby to demonize firearms rather than place blame where it belongs, on the perpetrator, according to gun rights advocates.
There is little doubt the demand for guns and ammunition will continue into 2021. Manufacturers will be announcing new products next month, despite the fact that there is no Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
