U.S. on pace to buy a record 27.5M guns
THE U.S. IS on pace to have another record-breaking year of gun buying.
Gun sales between January and June are up more than 30% from the same period in 2015, according to data released by the FBI Friday — and the rate of sales could keep growing as the year goes on.
The FBI processed 2,131,485 background checks for firearms — considered to be the best way to track gun sales — in June, the same month 49 people died when a crazed gunman declaring his allegiance to ISIS shot up a gay nightclub in Orlando.
That’s up from 1,870,000 in May. The June figure brings the background check total for the first six months 13,829,461.
That’s a 32% increase from the 10,466,243 performed between January and June 2015.
If the rate stays steady, the U.S. will see more than 27.5 million background checks by the end of the year — a figure that would smash last year’s numbers by more than 4 million.
And 2015 was one for the record books. Background checks reached an all-time high last year — a whopping 23,141,970 — signaling a surge in gun sales.
But the June 2016 numbers were released as a new CBS poll showed the percentage of American households with at least one firearm dropped to a 35-year low.
The CBS survey of 1,001 Americans found that 36% of respon- of 2016 to dents said they live in a home with at least one gun, while 13% said they own a weapon themselves.
The poll also found 10% have a weapon and live with another gun owner. It’s a dramatic drop in gun- owningow homes in the U.S. — even as it appears existing gun owners arear building up their arsenals.
In a 1981 CBS poll, for exampl ple, 50% of people said their ho household had a gun in it.
In 2004, that number had dr dropped to 41%, and in 2008 it w was at 42%.
Even as gun sales soar this ye year, more than nine in 10 registe tered voters — 93% — said they w want more universal background ch checks, according to a June 30 Q Quinnipiac poll.
Of those surveyed, 54% said they’d like to see tougher gun control laws and 59% support a ban on assault weapons.
The figures come as both the GOP-controlled Senate and House failed to pass legislation aimed at keeping suspected terrorists from buying guns and tightening background checks. MEMBERSHIPShavemorethan doubledinanationalLGBT pro- gun rights organization since a gunman opened fire at a gay nightclub in Florida, killing 49 people. Pink Pistols Utah chapter PresidentMattSchlentzsaidmembe rship nationwide has grown 4,000 from 1,500 since Omar Mateen’s June 12rampage,TheSaltLakeTribune reported. “It’s really sad that something on this scale had to happen for people torealizethisisaneedforourc ommunity,” Schlentz said. “But the reality is, we still get attacked for kissing our partnersorholdinghands in public.” Schlentz owns semiautomatic riflessimilar to the Sig Sauer MCX that Mateen used and said he gets mixed reactionsfrompeoplewholear n he’s a gun rights advocate. Pink Pistols organized in 2000 in response to aseries of violentincidents like themurder in Wyomingofgay college studentMatthew Shepard.