More and more Americans seem like they want to be locked and loaded.
The FBI has reportedly seen a whopping 300 percent increase in background checks compared to the same time last year thanks, in part, to the coronavirus outbreak and fears over a government gun grab.
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Newsweek, citing the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group, said it was informed by the FBI that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System is seeing about double the number of its usual checks.
The report said that the FBI will likely publish its March numbers sometime in early April, and many believe the numbers will be through the roof.
Gun sales across the U.S. have seen a dramatic increase since the coronavirus outbreak took hold. The Associated Press reported that lines at stores in Los Angeles have stretched down the block and one store in Idaho had to put limits on its sales due to the demand.
Greg Richardson, the manager of Classic Arms of Memphis, one of the Mid-South’s most popular gun shops, told the “Todd Starnes Radio Show” earlier this week that he is not surprised about the demand. Whenever there is a national crisis and there’s a possibility that the government may act on limiting gun sales, he pointed out.
“It has just not stopped since the beginning of last week,” Richardson said on Monday.
Last week, New Orleans’ mayor, LaToya Cantrell, signed an emergency order that could give her office the authority to bar the sales and transportation of firearms in the city amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Breitbart reported that the Second Amendment Foundation blasted Cantrell’s declaration and said the group would sue the city as it did after Hurricane Katrina when then-Mayor Ray Nagin began confiscating firearms “from law-abiding citizens for no good reason.”
“We sued New Orleans then, and we’ll do it again. The presence of a nasty disease does not suspend any part of the Bill of Rights, no matter what some municipal, state or even federal politician may think,” the statement obtained by Breitbart said.
The National Rifle Association told Newsweek that gun sale increases often occur during times of uncertainty.
Mark Healy, the owner of a dealership in Tempe, Ariz., told the website that his business was established 10 years ago and he has never seen such demand.
“Not even after the shooting at Sandy Hook when they were talking about taking guns away,” he said.