Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gun sales surge amid COVID-19 pandemic
Background checks in 2020 exceeded years since 2004
Gun sales surged in Florida through the end of 2020, following a national trend amid an unprecedented year marked by the coronavirus pandemic, historic protests over police misconduct and a turbulent election.
A spike in sales usually happens around Christmas as people buy guns for themselves or get ammunition and other accessories as stocking stuffers, said Robbie Motes, owner of The Armories, a chain of Central Florida gun stores.
But purchases at his shops this year were up about 75% compared to a normal holiday season, Motes said. First-time gun buyers who bought a firearm in March, at the beginning of the pandemic, came back to buy more, he added.
“Many more people have decided to take their protection into their own hands,” he said.
In Florida, background checks for gun sales and transfers in 2020 exceeded every year since 2004 with more than 1.5 million background checks as of Dec. 28, according to data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It’s a significant uptick from 2019, when FDLE conducted 942,052 background checks.
The biggest months for state background checks in 2020 coincide with moments of political and social upheaval, the data show.
In March, which had 169,715 background checks, the COVID19 outbreak shut down Florida and began a deadly spree that has since killed almost 343,000 people in the U.S.
June (183,791 checks) and July (149,291 checks) saw nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism after a Minneapolis cop killed George Floyd in May. The roller-coaster election and victory by President-elect Joe Biden over President Donald Trump left November with 136,527 background checks.
Overall, Americans broke records in 2020 with nearly 36 million background checks conducted to buy or possess a firearm by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System — more than any year since 1998.
It all comes down to fear, said Daniel Webster, a health policy professor and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
Election years typically see increases in gun sales, especially if gun rights advocates are concerned about stricter laws, but 2020’s added phenomenon of pandemic and protests against law enforcement pushed purchases to unusual heights, he said.
“What we see beginning in early spring is an increase in gun sales as people are buying toilet paper and stocking up on supplies,” he said. “There’s an enormous amount of uncertainty just about meeting your basic needs. In a country where gun laws are generally weak, in times of uncertainty, people go to buy more guns.”
“Black Lives Matter” protests against police killings of Black people were politicized, with Trump’s campaign and others claiming Democrats would allow anarchy to spread, Webster said.
“Campaigns were telling people ... ‘Crime is going to be rampant, police will be constrained and you have to protect yourself,’ ” he said. “All of this comes down to fear. There’s a long-term association between lack of faith in the government and gun ownership.”
Motes said his shop has been getting busier in the days leading up to Biden’s inauguration. The president-elect has said gun violence is a “public health epidemic” and vowed a crackdown.
“When Joe Biden takes office, it makes the prices go up,” he said. “Strict regulation creates a higher demand, which decreases supply.”
The Armories has hired more gun safety instructors and added training classes to keep up with the demand for firearms and social distancing requirements, Motes said.
Nearly 5 million Americans bought a gun for the first time in the first seven months of 2020, according to estimates from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearm industry.
Webster said he used to worry less about gun sale spikes because the market was usually people who already had guns buying more guns.
The increase in first-time gun owners in 2020 means more households overall have firearms.
“Pretty consistently you see that when there are more guns, there are more shooting deaths, with suicides outnumbering homicides by a fair margin,” he said.
The risk is more substantial for people buying their first gun as opposed to someone with 10 firearms buying an 11th gun, Webster added.
“Law-abiding people are not going to harm anymore,” he said. “... But clearly people are stressed. Clearly people are feeling angry. More guns in that environment makes me concerned that it is certainly going to translate into more people being shot.”