In mid-March, the Pennsylvania State Police’s background check system crashed — not because of a technological error per se, but because it could not handle the influx of applications from individuals looking to purchase firearms.

That was when the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak, and people were scrambling to stock up on groceries and bunker down for the next several weeks. Tension and uncertainty were at an all-time high, it seemed, so many people in Pennsylvania and across the United States decided to buy guns to secure some sort of peace of mind.