Arizona PBS
Dec. 18, 2020
With one month left in the year, background checks for gun purchases in Arizona have already set a record. Experts attribute the spike to worries about the pandemic, a summer of unrest and presidential politics. (Photo by David Landry/Creative Commons)
WASHINGTON – Background checks for gun purchases in Arizona hit their highest level ever in 2020, driven by an unprecedented convergence of a pandemic, a summer of national unrest and a presidential election, experts said.
With a month left to go in the year, 610,911 background checks had been performed in the state through November, well over the 372,912 done in all of 2019, according to FBI data.