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From the NSSF:
NSSF, the commerce affiliation for the firearm trade, up to date retail survey-based estimates and concluded that almost 5 million Americans bought a firearm for the very first time in 2020. NSSF surveyed firearm retailers which reported that 40 p.c of gross sales had been performed to purchasers who’ve by no means beforehand owned a firearm.
NSSF tracks the background checks related to the sale of a firearm based mostly on the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System (NICS). NSSF-adjusted NICS checks for January via July 2020 is a document 12.1 million, which is up 71.7 p.c from the 7.1 million NSSF-adjusted NICS January via July 2019. This equates to just about 5 million first-time gun house owners within the first seven months of 2020.
“This is a tectonic shift in the firearm and ammunition industry marketplace and complete transformation of today’s gun-owning community,” mentioned Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President of General Counsel. “These first-time buyers represent a group of people who, until now, were agnostic regarding firearm ownership. That’s rapidly changing, and these Americans are taking hold of their God-given right to keep and bear arms and protect themselves and their loved ones.”
NSSF surveys revealed that 58 p.c of firearm purchases had been amongst African American women and men, the most important enhance of any demographic group. Women comprised 40 p.c of first-time gun purchasers. Retailers famous that they’re seeing a 95 p.c enhance in firearm gross sales and a 139 p.c enhance in ammunition gross sales over the identical interval in 2019.
Several elements are contributing to the sustained surge in firearm purchases. Sales spiked in March, with a record-setting 2.three million NICS background checks performed for a firearm sale, the identical month the coronavirus pandemic struck. During this time, police warned response occasions can be examined whereas mayors and governors emptied prisons, together with violent felons. Some of these had been rearrested inside days for committing one other violent crime. After Memorial Day, protests turned to looting, riots and destruction, which continues at the moment in a number of main metropolitan areas. Politically-charged calls to defund police additionally proceed to spur gross sales.
This can also be an election yr and firearm gross sales usually rise throughout presidential election years. However, this yr, Democratic candidates Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) are calling for stringent gun management measures, together with forcible confiscation, banning whole courses of firearms from lawful possession, licensing schemes and repealing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which might expose the firearm trade to frivolous and harassing lawsuits.
Each month since March, NSSF-adjusted NICS background checks have set a document because the strongest ever recorded for that month.
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