Virginia Jul 6, 2020
Sales of firearms in Virginia soared to historic levels last month. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Sunday the rise in purchases is happening amidst the uncertainty of the coronavirus and protests against racism and police brutality. There were 81,204 transactions in June, according to newly released figures from the Virginia Firearms Transaction Center. Sales in June had the highest monthly total… coronavirus Apr 11, 2020
Curt Sebastian says he wasn’t expecting a rush of customers but, as a small business owner, he’ll take it. He says fear and uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus have more than doubled sales at his two Northern Virginia gun stores in the past few weeks. “We had no choice but to increase staff at both locations,” Sebastian said. “It’s wide open,.
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.