Gun sales are shooting up at record-breaking levels in Oregon, with shop owners citing upticks in violence and riots as the biggest motivator for people to arm themselves.
Oregon has long made the national spotlight for persistent riots that overtook Portland, which at one point during the summer last year was the center of a police-free autonomous zone similar to the ‘CHAZ’ zone created in Seattle.
Scott Wyke, owner of Hammer Down Firearms in Bend, said ammunition, as well as guns, are going fast because of the civil unrest.
“All the riots started it,” Wyke told the Oregonian. “Now it’s the Democrats saying they’re going to take our guns away and people are purchasing now. Ammunition is in short supply now.”
BUSINESS IS BOOMING IN THIS SMALL-TOWN GUN SHOP
Guntraders owner Jerry Koch of Redmond echoed that sentiment, saying he saw more customers flock to his shop after protests and riots started happening last year after the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“I pray for America,” Koch said. “At the start of the pandemic, they came in and we were busy. They were scared then, too. But once the riots started, they started climbing again.”
Last year, Oregon sold more than 516,000 guns, and there were 418,061 background check requests, compared to 276,912 requests in 2019, according to data from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Across the United States, 39.5 million gun background checks were completed in 2020, significantly up from just five years ago in 2015 with 23.1 million.
Firearms sales spiked across the country in 2020, a year defined by the coronavirus pandemic and riots, largely concentrated in the nation’s urban hubs.
Portland has been the center of a lot of protest activity, starting last summer but persisting well into the new year. Last month, rioters associated with the leftist agitators smashed in the windows of the local headquarters for the Democratic Party, shortly after President Biden was inaugurated.
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Overall safety concerns, combined with the pandemic and an election year embattled with partisan division, drove a 60% spike in gun sales in 2020.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a leading gun trade group, estimated sales were around 21 million across the country, a 34% jump from the last record in 2016.
Additionally, 2020 saw an uptick in sales to first-time gun buyers, women, and black people.
