According to Firearm Chronicles
We don’t know for sure how many Americans have decided over the past couple of weeks to exercise their Second Amendment rights for the first time in their lives, but anecdotally, I’m hearing from a lot of gun store owners and employees that a huge portion of their customer base are first-time gun buyers. Gun control advocates are doing everything they can to try to shame and scare Americans into staying away from firearms, but for the most part it seems their efforts are falling on deaf ears.
Amanda Marcotte with Salon isn’t a fan of the Second Amendment during normal times, and the thought of tens of thousands of Americans buying a gun for the very first time has sent her into a tizzy.
No doubt these folks are aware that COVID-19 is a microscopic virus and therefore is not something you can shoot. No, obviously, the fear is about the economy collapsing (thanks for the negligence, Donald Trump!), leading to a rise in crime and violence, in which people imagine they can use these guns to defend their lives, families and property. Also, decades of NRA propaganda have convinced people to associate guns with safety. Indeed, as the economy craters, the NRA is treating this crisis as another opportunity to sell guns to people. What else would it do?
The NRA doesn’t sell guns to people, and it’s not NRA propaganda that’s driving gun sales at the moment. It’s common sense. People are concerned about the prospect of the public safety net unraveling over the next few weeks, and they want to be able to protect themselves and the people they love. That’s not an unreasonable fear at all. In fact, at the moment it seems pretty prudent to not want to be defenseless.
But the last thing anyone should be doing in this crisis, if they want to stay safe, is to buy a gun. Buying a gun right now will make your family and your home less safe, especially if you, like many panic buyers, are not trained in gun safety and don’t have the proper storage.