Gun Sales Soar — Record Number of FBI Background Checks
The current Coronavirus Pandemic may be the most significant event to impact the United States since World War II. The majority of Americans are now “sheltering at home” under State Executive Orders. Across the nation, schools, shops, restaurants, and countless businesses are closed. The virus continues to spread at an exponential rate in the USA, which now has more confirmed Covid-19 cases than any other country on the planet. Yes, according to official statistics, we have more persons infected than does China, where this scourge originated. (However, there is considerable evidence that China may be deliberately under-reporting COVID-19 infections and deaths).
For obvious reasons, this Pandemic has Americans concerned about their safety and their security. As a result, citizens across the country are purchasing firearms. There are lines outside the doors of some gunshops. The rush to buy guns has led to a historic spike in NICS firearms background checks.
Record Number of FBI Background Checks for Gun Sales
According to MSN News, “With most of the nation in isolation to halt the spread of coronavirus, officials are seeing a spike in gun sales….the FBI has seen a 41% increase in background checks compared to this time last year.” According to the FBI, 3.7 million background check were run by the FBI in March.
Click Image to Go to MSN to Watch Video (then Click Speaker icon for audio).
And Fox News confirms that we are seeing a huge spike in gun sales and background checks: “The FBI ran more than 3.7 million gun background checks on Americans under the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in March, smashing the previous record as Americans armed themselves amid growing fears about the coronavirus pandemic. The NICS system ran 3,740,688 background checks in March, which is 33 percent higher than the previous record of more than 2.8 million, which was set in February. The February numbers were a 34 percent uptick from the same time in 2019. March’s background check numbers marked a 41 percent increase over March 2019.”
READ Fox News Story HERE »
About the Numbers — There is NOT a 1:1 correspondence between NICS checks and gun purchases, because not all background checks involve an actual purchases. For example, some States run NICS checks for carry permit applications. It is estimated that at least 2.3 million March 2020 background checks were for firearms transactions.
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