During times of turmoil, uncertainty, and/or near panic Americans tend to find comfort in three things and despite ongoing toilet paper hoarding trends, incessant crapping isn’t one of them.

Praying/meditating to a higher power, stocking up on food/water, and buying guns for protection.

While the first two do not fall within the scope of this editorial, the latter does.

The anecdotal evidence that people are ravenously buying guns can definitely be seen.

The week that the government started shutting everything down and telling people to stay home, I stopped at my local big-box outdoor retailer and the line for buying guns was wrapped around the gun section, and the counter was elbow to elbow with customers looking at guns.

Two weeks later I stopped into two different local small gun stores and the shelves at both were nearly empty. The only handguns at one of the stores were three surplus pre-WWII European guns in .32 ACP.

In confirmation of what we’re seeing at our local gun stores, the NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) sent out a press release with the most current numbers for March 2020 adjusted NICS background checks.

For those that don’t know, it’s difficult to track actual gun sales numbers, so the NSSF tracks the number of background checks (adjusted) using NICS — National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

They use an adjusted figure because NICS is also used by states for other purposes, such as CCW permit application checks and rechecks.

According to the NSSF numbers for March 2020, there were 2,375,525 adjusted NICS background checks done (3,709,563 unadjusted). That’s an 80.4 percent increase from March 2019, which had 1,317,114.

It makes sense that people would find comfort in owning a gun for protection. In times of uncertainty, such as what we’re going through with the Coronavirus, people feel helpless, and a loss of control.

Naturally, they seek out ways to take back some of that control so they can feel safer and not as helpless.

It’s a good thing because if all of these new gun owners realize, “Hey, when things go south, I feel safer owning a gun. Maybe guns aren’t such an evil thing after all.”

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