Charette, a military veteran, spent $1,500 at a gun shop in Germantown, Wisconsin, after encountering aggressive shoppers and empty shelves at local grocery stores. Now, if looters come knocking, he'll be ready, he said. "There's so much uncertainty and paranoia but you've got to protect your own," Charette said.
Charette is among a growing tide of Americans who are going to retailers, pawnshops and online to purchase gun supplies and ammunition in the wake of COVID-19, which had killed more than 60 people in the U.S. as of Saturday afternoon.
As hysteria surrounding the illness drives some to stockpile groceries and toilet paper in case they're quarantined, it's also causing many to worry about a shortage of gun supplies, which is driving up demand and leading to long lines at suppliers.
Lengthy lines formed outside the Martin Retting Guns store in Culver City, California, on Sunday morning, before the store opened. People said the line Saturday was so long, extending around the block, so they decided to come back and try again.
Many said they were looking for extra protection, primarily ammo, in case the virus shuts down most businesses. The trend continued outside Turner’s Outdoorsman store in Torrance, California, before opening. “People are scared,” said Drew Plotkin of Los Angeles. “There’s a lot of panic in the world and people want to be protected for the worst-case scenario.”
In New Castle, Delaware, Emily Ken, 22, bought ammunition this weekend for her 9mm handgun before "doomsday preppers" could buy up all the supply, she said. Ken went to a Dick's Sporting Goods store where she said one of the workers told her that everywhere else in the area was sold out. "It's better to be prepared than to not be prepared," Ken said. "I already stocked up on food. Ammo was just the next step."
As frenzied stockpiling stripped gun specialty stores of inventory, more people also went online to order gun supplies in recent weeks. Online ammunition retailer Ammo.com witnessed an exponential increase in sales since late February, which the company attributes to public worry surrounding coronavirus.
"We know certain things impact ammo sales, mostly political events or economic instability when people feel their rights may end up infringed, but this is our first experience with a virus leading to such a boost in sales," said Alex Horsman, the marketing manager at Ammo.com in a statement.
The website reported a 68% spike in sales between mid-February and early March. Online orders were booming most in North Carolina and Georgia. However, ammunition shopping also surged in Florida, which has over 100 confirmed coronavirus cases, and New York, with over 700 cases of the respiratory illness.
Retailers are also limiting how much ammunition people can buy amidst supply shortages. Greg Reynders, 62, bought 250 rounds of ammunition on Saturday, the most an indoor gun range in St. Louis would allow in the wake of increasing demand.
"They were completely out of the cheaper bulk ammunition," Reynders said. He also bought a 9mm handgun to protect himself in case someone tries to steal his groceries if there are further supply shortages.
"Right now, local stores have light supplies of toilet paper, water and things like that," Reynders said. "But if they don't restock as fast as people want, my main concern is somebody coming up to me as I walk out of Target and trying to take what I purchased."
Ever since the number of Coronavirus cases started climbing in the U.S., sales of guns and ammunition have also seen a rise. Following the outbreak, people are expecting possible social unrest, and thus, are turning to firearms for self-protection. Long lines of people queuing up outside gun stores are a common thing now on the west coast.
As per the gun shop owners, such a sharp rise in the demand of guns is unprecedented, and that they haven’t seen anything like this since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut in 2012.
Moreover, the type of guns that people are buying is also indicating their fear. As per the gun shop owners, people are showing no interest in hunting rifles. Rather, they are going for the target guns and AR-15 semi-automatic assault-style rifles.
Ammo.com, a major online dealer of ammunition, has shared sales figures from Feb. 23 to March 4. During this period, the online retailer saw a 68% jump in sales when compared to the sales of 11 days up to Feb. 23.
“We know certain things impact ammo sales, mostly political events or economic instability when people feel their rights may end up infringed, but this is our first experience with a virus leading to such a boost in sales," Ammo.com’s marketing manager, Alex Horsman said in a statement.
State wise, North Carolina and Georgia have seen a jump of 179% and 169%, respectively, in the sales of guns following the coronavirus outbreak, Ammo.com said. Other states that have witnessed a large jump in gun sales are Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas and New York.
A few reports also say that the recent spike in gun sales in Washington State and California could be largely attributed to the Asian-American customers. As per the reports, such buyers fear racist backlash over the outbreak, which originated from China.
“People are panicking because they don’t feel secure. They worry about a riot or maybe that people will start to target the Chinese,” a Los Angeles-based Chinese-American gun dealer, David Liu, told the Trace.
Apart from the fear of social unrest, another reason why some may be buying guns is the declaration of a national emergency. Many potential buyers would be buying out of fear that the government may not allow them to do so in the near future.
People saw similar behavior immediately after mass shootings in the U.S. Also, the spike in gun sales has been seen during presidential election years and also during stock market fluctuations. Along with the sale of guns, demand for survival gear, such as ballistic body armor, knives, flashlights, bulletproof vests, medical kits, and more are also on the rise.
Rising sales of guns and ammunition following Coronavirus have pushed up the stocks of publicly-traded gun sellers as well. Gun sellers including American Outdoor Brands, Sturm, Ruger & Co., Vista Outdoor and more saw a jump in their stock price yesterday even when the broad market performed badly.
Based on the data from Background checks for gun purchases through the FBI system, a total of 2.8 million guns were purchased in February, an increase of 36% compared to the same period last year. This is the biggest year-over-year increase since 2016.
The National Rifle Assn. and other 2nd Amendment advocates are welcoming this upsurge in sale guns and ammunition. “You don’t need it, till you need it,” Donald Trump Jr. said in a recent tweet.
Those who are against the uptick in sales say that this sudden rise in Coronavirus related gun sales does give rise to one more concern. With schools closed and weapons at home, there are concerns over the safety of kids. In the list of the most prevalent killer of children in the U.S., firearms are second only to car accidents. As per the data from the University of Michigan school of public health, gun injuries are the biggest cause of death for those in the 14- to 17-year-old bracket.
THEY’RE known as “junk guns”, deadly firearms made from a jumble of copper pipes, bike parts, old power tools, and held together by cable ties. Record numbers of homemade guns made from materials easily sourced at local hardware stores are hitting the streets, with teenage boys in the city’s southwest and outlaw bikie gangs the prime market.
The weapons are made using instructions found online and include so-called pen and slam guns that use pipes to replicate a shotgun. They account for about 10 per cent of all firearms being seized by police. Firearms Squad commander Mick Plotecki said some pen guns sold for as little as $100 and were often as dangerous to the user as they were to other people.
“Most of them are very unsafe weapons, they can blow up in your hand,” he said. “They are only single-shot pen pistols but one shot is enough. One shot can kill somebody. “They’re easily concealable and people that make them sell them for relatively small prices.
“Good criminals have the connections to get existing guns but on the lower end, those guns aren’t available so they move to the next thing. We’re seeing it as a growing trend. “We seem to be seeing it more than we have previously. It does seem to be younger males going for these pen guns, a lot of them in south-western Sydney.
“They seem to be very popular with outlaw motorcycle gang members and also some of the customers are younger males who buy them for various reasons which we can’t explain. That’s a concern that they can source guns in the first place, and the fact that people make them and sell them.”
Mr Plotecki said that while there was no evidence the homemade guns had been used by local extremists, it was a concern for the future. “There is no evidence of that but the community should be aware of them,” he said.
University of South Australia senior lecturer Kesten Green, who specialises in gun control, said criminals making their own guns made “economic sense” because it was cheaper than importing them. “If they can’t obtain them legally it is much cheaper (to make them) than importing them,” Dr Green said. “I would imagine the cost of making them would be relatively low.”
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| Once the guns are outlawed, only the outlaws will have guns. |