It’s not just hand sanitizer that seems to be flying off shelves.
As the coronavirus shuts down schools and workplaces and sends shoppers in a mad frenzy for groceries and hygiene products, people around the country are also stocking up on guns.
Larry Hyatt, the owner of a firearms store in Charlotte, said the virus has prompted a spike in sales he has seen only once before in his six decades of business — after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook.
“Financial meltdown, pandemic, crime, politics … You throw it all into the pot, and you have one hell of a mess,” he told the Guardian. Most of his customers have sought out assault-style rifles, a sign they want to protect themselves and their families, he added.
In California over the weekend, lines wrapping around the block formed outside a Culver City gun shop well before it opened.
“Politicians and anti-gun people have been telling us for the longest time that we don’t need guns,” one customer in line, John Gore, told the Los Angeles Times. “But right now, a lot of people are truly scared."
Ammo.com, an online gun seller, reported a 68 percent spike in sales between mid-February and early March. In Florida, officials ran more background checks Saturday than on any other day since 2012, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
But the rush to buy firearms has been building for weeks. On the west coast, Chinese Americans have been stocking up as they worry the virus’s origins in China may make them the targets of xenophobic violence, according to the Trace.
David Liu, who owns a gun store in the heart of Southern California’s Chinese American community, said he had seen a fivefold increase in sales over the past two weeks. His major suppliers are also out of stock.
“It’s like toilet paper,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiSGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS93b3JsZC8yMDIwLzAzLzE3L2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWxhdGVzdC1uZXdzL9IBV2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS93b3JsZC8yMDIwLzAzLzE3L2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWxhdGVzdC1uZXdzLz9vdXRwdXRUeXBlPWFtcA?oc=5
2020-03-17 10:17:17Z
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