The surge in background checks in Virginia came as no surprise to the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, which noted that “law-abiding gun owners buy firearms whenever anti-gun politicians start targeting them instead of criminals.”

In 2016, the New York Times reported on this phenomenon, calling it a “Catch-22 dynamic for gun-control proponents: Pushing for new restrictions can lead to an influx of new guns.”

It happened in New Jersey in 2013. After then-Gov. Chris Christie signed 10 gun-control laws that required background checks, restrictions on certain firearms, and the submission of mental health records to NICS, gun sales in his state spiked.

It happened in Maryland the same year. After the state legislature passed some of the strictest gun-control measures in the nation in response to the Newtown, Conn., and Navy Yard massacres, firearm applications soared, beating all previous records.