US 2020 election: Gun sales soar to record 17.2 million amid election year anxiety

Some 1.7m guns were purchased last month; with 4 per cent of the world’s population, the US has 40% of civilian-owned guns globally.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation says every month this year since March had “been the strongest of that month ever recorded”. Picture: AFP

Gun sales in America have hit a record level this year with 1.7 million last month, bringing the yearly total to 17.2 million and smashing the previous high in 2016 — also an election year.

Americans are buying handguns in much greater numbers for protection because of fears about the coronavirus lockdown and unrest on the streets after the killing of George Floyd, a black man, in police custody in Minneapolis in May.

Concern that defeat for the Trump administration will mean tighter restrictions on owning guns seems to be adding to the rush. Even higher sales are forecast for the traditionally busy last two months of the year.

This year’s sales bring the total number of firearms in private hands in America to more than 400 million out of a population of 330 million. With 4 per cent of the world’s population, the US has 40 per cent of civilian-owned guns globally.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) said that more than 1.7 million background checks were conducted in connection with the sale of a firearm last month, an increase of 60.1 per cent compared with last October’s 1.1 million.

The NSSF said that every month this year since March had “been the strongest of that month ever recorded” based on its analysis of FBI background checks, which do not always lead to a sale.

Americans are buying handguns in much greater numbers. Picture: Gary Ramage

This year 17.2 million background checks resulted in a sale compared with 15.7 million in 2016 and almost 13.2 million last year. The FBI began compiling records of background checks in 1998.

Mark Oliva, of the NSSF, said that sales last month had been fuelled by fears of a change in government and tighter regulation. “America is watching and is already voting with their wallets when it comes to lawful firearm ownership,” he said.

Referring to the constitutional protection of the right to keep and bear arms, he said: “It cannot be discounted that gun buyers are faced with polar opposites of presidential candidates when it comes to protecting Second Amendment rights.

“Rising gun sales haven’t been a phenomenon of just red [Republican] states, but also blue states. Never before have so many Americans chosen to exercise their right to firearm ownership.”

Three in ten Americans own a gun and almost one in ten adults owns five or more, according to analysis by the Pew Research Center that predates this year’s buying spree. Nearly half of Americans say that they grew up in a household that had a firearm.

“When Americans are concerned about their personal security, they buy firearms,” researchers at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan body that studied sales, said. “Such concerns have been rampant since March, initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then the social unrest in June that followed George Floyd’s killing.”

The Times