According to Fox News
As stores around the nation are struggling to keep up with the demand for food, toilet paper and hand sanitizer, there is another golden commodity fast disappearing from the shelves amid the coronavirus crisis: firearms.
Over the past week, gun stores countrywide have seen long lines and a wiping out of inventory as unnerved customers turn to their Second Amendment rights in the bid for self-protection.
“Firearms and ammunition sales are strong this week as many gun stores are quickly trying to restock inventory. There has been an uptick in inquiries for firearms training as families seek guidance on the selection, use and storage of a new firearm,” Robyn Sandoval, 45, executive director of the Austin-based “A Girl & A Gun Women’s Shooting League,” told Fox News. “Law-abiding Americans want to have access to firearms during times of uncertainty. Families are social distancing and stocking up on food and supplies at home. The outbreak is creating a lot of anxiety in our communities. Families who have prepared at home want to be equipped to protect themselves from any looters or
Background checks via the universal FBI system experienced a 34 percent uptick in February alone, processing almost 3 million. In January, as news of the new virus permeated from its origins in Wuhan, China, checks increased some 25 percent, according to the most recently available data.
Moreover, based on the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) summary of sales processed with a background check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), the sales of firearms through dealers has spiked 17 percent nationwide as of March 15, 2020, versus last year.
However, there is some concern that the national supply may not be able to meet the growing appeal.
“That percentage is expected to increase before the end of March dramatically. Firearm retailers and manufacturers were not prepared to meet the surge or a sustained long-term demand, so firearms and ammunition will seem to be largely absent from dealer shelves for weeks to come,” cautioned Eric Poole, editor of Guns and Ammo magazine. “If firearm and ammunition manufacturers throughout the U.S. are required to keep their workforce at home, this will have a more profound effect and drive up prices, to include private transfers of firearms and ammunition, which are not monitored or recorded by the NICS system.”
A number of interviews conducted by Fox News in recent days with several gun store owners and sellers indicated that sales this month have, on average, spiked anywhere between 30 and 400 percent, compared with a “normal” time period. In addition to a jump in guns and ammunition sales, requests for body armor have also accelerated in some places.