The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Lamont restricts gun sales amid pandemic
NORTH BRANFORD — A number of people seemingly have become interested in buying a gun amid the coronavirus pandemic, as purchases in Connecticut have spiked in recent days.
But they’re going to have to wait their turn.
Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday required in an executive order that sales be made by appointment, describing the change as the latest safety measure required to fight the spread of the virus.
At Connecticut Sporting Arms LLC on Foxon Road, Arnie Willhite experienced a boom in recent days. He said Tuesday he had been seeing five to six times his normal business, leaving his shelves virtually bare.
“We pretty much got wiped out on our inventory,” said Willhite. “It seems like every time something happens to make people afraid of the future, they go out and buy stuff.”
Most of the sales have been pistols and shotguns, typically used for home defense, Willhite said, with a significant number of patrons buying a gun for the first time.
Willhite, who has been operating the business for
15 years, said he had never experienced a run of sales quite like this.
The closest thing was a jump after the Sandy Hook mass shooting in 2012, but that was an incident that prompted concerns in a specific area, he noted. This has frightened a much wider group of people, he said.
Mark Oliva, director of public affairs with the Newtown-based National Sports Shooting Foundation, said there are preliminary indications that sales have increased across Connecticut, although the FBI has yet not released the number of background checks conducted this month.
He believed an “eyepopping” number of sales have taken place.
Lamont confirmed that trend in his executive order, saying there have been 19,943 purchase or transfer authorizations so far in March 2020, up from 12,572 in all of March 2019.
Staffers at gun stores in Torrington and Middletown declined to comment for this story, saying they were too busy to talk.
The jump is in keeping with the past, Oliva said. He said gun purchases have been increasing generally since last April, and noted there are often spikes in sales after natural disasters.
“It’s not unprecedented in the nature of it,” said Oliva. “It goes back to this idea that Americans want to provide for their own safety in times of uncertainty.”
He urged new gun owners to take appopriate safety measures, such as purchasing gun locks and safes, and to get to a shooting range for training when possible.
Gary MacNamara, former police chief in Fairfield and executive director of public safety and government affairs at Sacred Heart University, and John DeCarlo, former police chief in Branford and associate professor at the University
of New Haven, said they believed it was unnecessary for people to rush to buy guns.
DeCarlo said he believed 911 calls had dropped in recent days, as habits had changed, which, in turns, affects the conditions for crime — known as the “routine activities theory” in criminology. People are home observing social distancing these days, thus dissuading property crime.
“I think that we’re poised at a part of history where we don’t have any experience to go on,” said DeCarlo. “I don’t think we’re going to get into an apocalyptic scenario.”
MacNamara said he understood people’s concerns in an uncertain time, particularly as police officers come down with the virus and businesses shutter. But he advised against buying a firearm at this time, noting the possibility of tragedy.
“It is never a good idea to purchase a firearm based on fear or impulse. Having a gun is a huge responsibility,” MacNamara said in a statement. “At a time when schools are closed and children are homebound for such a long period of time, the chance of a tragedy happening increases. Kids will become bored with each passing day and their curiosity will increase. Now is not the time to introduce a firearm to your home.”
On Friday, after Lamont’s executive order had come down, Oliva said he was glad the governor had continued to recognize the importance of maintaining people’s right to own a firearm under the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
The foundation encourages retailers to take appropriate safety measures to combat the pandemic, he said — if that means sales have to occur by appointment, so be it.
“I think (the restriction to appointments) makes it difficult for retailers,” said Oliva. “But these are very difficult times.”
william.lambert@ hearstmediact.com