According to Firearm Chronicles
We know that ammunition sale have surged by 300% for some retailers around the country, but it’s been a little difficult to get numbers on the spike in firearm sales. Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation told Bearing Arms on Tuesday that the NICS numbers have soared over the past week or so, but didn’t have any hard numbers.
Now we’re starting to get an idea of what Larry was talking about, thanks to some new information out of Colorado.
From Fox 31 in Denver:
Gun sales in the last week have doubled in Colorado, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the agency responsible for conducting background checks.
FOX31 and Channel 2 investigative reporter Chris Koeberl discovered more than 14,000 firearms were sold in just one week. About 7,000 guns were sold during the same time period last year.
According to Joe Oltmann, the owner of DCF Guns in Castle Rock, many customers are afraid what’s available today may not be tomorrow. “The panic started with toilet paper, then moved to food. Then, obviously when people see bare shelves, then obviously they want to make sure they will protected if it gets any worse,” Oltmann said.
As my colleague Tom Knighton noted today, people aren’t buying guns because they think they can shoot the virus. They’re buying firearms and ammunition because they’re worried about what happens next.
Think about all of the ways your world has changed in just a week. Is it really paranoid or delusional to be concerned that things will get worse? Of course not.