During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States continues to see a surge in gun and ammunition sales.
According to the Associated Press, the surge in gun purchases has led to a shortage of ammunition across the country.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation told the Associated Press that it estimated that 20 million guns were sold in the United States, of which 8 million were first-time gun purchasers.
Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the organization, said: “When you talk about all these people buying guns, it really has an impact on the people who buy ammunition.”
“If you look at the 8.4 million gun buyers, and they all want to buy a box of 50 bullets, then this will be 420 million bullets,” he added.
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data From FBIThe National Instant Criminal Background Check System shows that gun sales have risen sharply in the past year and a half. In 2020, the FBI conducted background checks on the purchase of nearly 40 million guns. In comparison, about 28 million background checks were conducted in 2019 and 26 million in 2018. In 2010, the FBI conducted 14.4 million inspections. By the first six months of 2021, it had initiated more than 22 million background checks.
However, the FBI pointed out that its data does not specifically track the purchase of guns, which means that “a one-to-one relationship cannot be established between gun background checks and gun sales.”
New York Times It was reported in May that preliminary data from Northeastern University and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center showed that one in five people who bought guns in the United States last year owned a gun for the first time.
The data also shows that 39% of American households now own guns, up from 32% in 2016.
Mike Wicks, owner of the Georgia gun store Tell Weekly newspaper Last July He saw an increase in the number of people buying guns for the first time in a store in Gainesville, Georgia.
“In the past gun scares, when we were worried that the government would try to confiscate our guns, you would see a group of people, mostly gun enthusiasts or people who already own guns, wanting more,” Wicks Said. “This time is very different. We saw that almost no one likes to buy a gun,” he added.
The Associated Press reported that with the increase in gun sales and gun dealers’ efforts to keep ammunition on shelves, the Associated Press reported from Russia, South Korea, European Union And other countries increased by 225%.
Duane Hendrix Policemen A gun shooting range athletics association in Tukwila, Washington, told the Associated Press that he has begun restricting customers to only two boxes of ammunition.
“I have never seen anything like this before,” Hendricks said. “There are some things we can’t buy, especially rifle ammunition. If your customer doesn’t have ammunition, there is no need to open the door.”
