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At this point in December it is already apparent Americans bought approximately 21 million guns this year, an increase of 73 percent over the number purchased in 2019.
ABC News quotes figures from The Trace to report the estimated 21 million guns sold and claims the buying surge is the result of a “perfect storm” consisting of “the pandemic, economic recession, civil unrest and a divisive presidential election.”
They spoke to a mother of three named Trish Beaudet, who explained she has never owned a gun before but is now buying one for herself and one for her 25-year-old daughter.
Beaudet said, “I’ve never owned a gun. I’ve never wanted a gun. I’ve never had a gun in my home.”
She then pointed to the chaos in the streets and on the news, lamenting:
It really bothers me when I watched things on the news, when you talk about the riots, and the looting, and the violence that’s happening. Pulling a gun is the last thing I ever want to do, but I want to know that if I need to protect myself, my family, my, you know, my children, that I can do that.
Divorced mother of two and “self-described Democrat” Erin Hart told a similar story: “My nightmare scenario would be being at home alone, middle of the night, and just myself and, you know, the boys, and, and someone coming in to harm us. When things start to hit a little closer home it kind of makes you sit up and think about it.”
November 2020 was the 11th consecutive month of record background checks for gun sales. FBI figures showed there were 3,626,335 National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) checks performed in November 2020, which represented more checks than were performed in any November since NICS was established.