Maryland State Police tracks applications for gun purchases, which is a strong indicator of demand. The numbers show that for the two-month period between November 2019 and January 2020, 11,286 applications were received. Between last November and this January, there’ve been 23,626 applications received more than double a year ago.
One gun owner told News4 if he weren’t already a gun owner, he’d be in the market for one.
“Just because of the political climate nowadays, the civil unrest that’s going on,” he said.
Lancaster said the onslaught of new purchasers also leads to some hitches.
“We have a lot of people now that are buying guns that they can’t get; we have to send those back,” he said.