People have already purchased more guns in the first eight months of 2020 than in all of 2019 and are on pace to make it the biggest year for weapon sales.
An industry analyst, noting the blistering pace of FBI background checks, said that sales have reached nearly 15 million through the end of August, 1 million more than the total sales in 2019.
And with deer season starting this month in several states and growing concerns that a Joe Biden presidency will mean an assault weapon ban and sweeping gun and ammunition control, sales are expected to surge in the fall.
“With the hunting season about to begin in earnest and the presidential election season about to start in earnest as well, 2020 will, without doubt, exceed the previous high of 16.6 million units sold in 2016,” said Jurgen Brauer, the chief economist with Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting.
In 2016, gun sales and FBI background checks hit a record due to expectations that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would beat President Trump and impose an assault weapon ban like her husband had.
Sales have been so brisk this year that many shelves in gun stores are bare. What’s more, ammunition is hard to find.
Brauer’s group is a key industry source for accurately tracking sales based on FBI background checks. Those checks include gun sales and other events, such as clearance for concealed carry permits, but Brauer’s group tries to filter those out to determine actual sales.
Their latest analysis shared with Secrets said: “Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting (SAAF) estimates August 2020 U.S. firearms unit sales at 1.8 million units, a year-over-year increase of 57.8% from August 2019. Likely single handgun sales (1 million) increased year-over-year by 66.0% whereas single long-gun sales (0.64 million) increased year-over-year by 48.4%. All other likely background check-related sales (0.14 million) increased year-over-year by 46.5%. This includes so-called ‘multiple’ sales where the exact split between handguns and long-guns cannot be determined from the data record.”
The industry trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, this week reported that this year has seen 5 million new gun owners, with most of them being black and female buyers.
