1.7 Million Guns Sold In October: What Americans Are Scared Of?

According to the US National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the sale of firearms till October 2020, has already surpassed the previous annual record set in 2016.

According to experts, this year’s spike in gun sales came when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US in March, making it the worst-infected nation in the world. A picture also emerged when people went to buy food items before the lockdown and then to buy weapons and returned home. 

The NSSF said over 17.2 million background checks were conducted for gun owners who purchased guns this year, compared it to 15.7 million checks for firearm sales in 2016, the year which saw the record sale. 

Demand for guns has increased every month across the US since March. The group determined that every month in 2020 since March has “been the strongest of that month ever recorded”. In October alone, background checks were conducted for more than 1.7 million firearms buyers, an increase of over 60% compared to the same period in 2019. 

The most surprising thing is that 17.2 million guns have been sold in 2020, out of these 5 million guns were purchased by first-time buyers. The first reason behind this is the ongoing ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests against police brutality in many states of America, which have witnessed many incidents of violence and vandalism, and the other is the Coronavirus pandemic. 

Gun sales are expected to increase even more during the holiday season. November and December have always been considered the busiest months of the year for the sale of guns. 

Though gun control is a sensitive issue in the US because, for most American people, owning a firearm is tied to their personal freedom. According to a study, on average, there are 120 guns for every 100 US residents. Recently, after the firing in many public places, demand has also grown that owning a firearm be made more strict in the US. However, the huge sales of weapons this year do not make it easy to do so.