Unless you’ve been living in a cave, it’s not news to you that Americans are buying firearms at a much faster rate than usual.
When I went to get my concealed carry permit in 2015, it took me 90 minutes to get it and that included the photo ID card. I had heard horror stories from others who live in different counties in my state, some taking weeks and others even longer. The sheriff’s deputy told me that the 90 minutes was actually a longer wait than normal. I asked why and he said it was because that was the weekend that the Charlie Hebdo shooting happened in France where two French Muslim gunmen, brothers, shot up the French satirical weekly magazine, and he said that whenever there is a mass shooting in the news tons of people buy firearms and they apply for their concealed carry permit.
With all the riots that took place last year in cities across American and the fact that Democrats who run those cities did absolutely nothing to protect their citizens, some who turned down federal help solely because it was offered by President Donald Trump, many people feel now they are on their own. They no longer trust their elected officials to protect them.
What’s fascinating about a certain subset of people buying firearms over the last year isn’t that they’re first-time firearms buyers but that they were anti gun in the past, according to the Washington Post. The Democrats made gun owners out of people who previously hated or were afraid of guns. That’s how bad things have gotten.
In 2020, gun sales went through the roof. According to the FBI, they conducted 39.7 million firearm background checks last year (those are the background checks Democrats tell you never happen). If you purchase a gun from Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) gun dealer you must go through the federal background check. I’ve gone through it over a dozen times. Sometimes it takes about 5 minutes and other times it could be up to an hour or longer depending on the traffic going through the system at that precise time.
But, the background checks don’t directly represent exclusive firearm purchases. As I said earlier, people have to go through a background check to get a concealed carry permit.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELHowever, out of that 39.7 million number, for background checks conducted for purchases of firearms only, the number is 21 million in 2020, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Incidentally, the previous record was in 2016 at 15.7 million.
New Jersey resident Shakima Thomas told the Post that she’s a lifelong Democrat who once wanted nothing to do with guns. But following the violence that erupted across cities last summer, Thomas found herself as the new owner of a pistol and AR-15.
“I never felt like I would want to own a gun because of the damage I thought they do to people,” she said. “But when I started feeling unsafe, all of that changed.”
Why did she feel unsafe? Because the Democrats did nothing to make her feel safe all summer long in 2020.
One gun shop owner said he noticed that a different type of gun purchasers were coming into his store.
“Typically, my customers were always White men and White women concerned about who was president and what restrictions were coming,” said Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works in Austin. “Then last summer, you had the protests and downtown was basically boarded up. Law enforcement all went downtown. Right away, we had lines out the door every day.”
“It didn’t matter if you were Democrat or Republican, White or Black,” said Cargill, who is Black. “One side said, ‘Trump’s going to be reelected and it’s going to get violent,’ and the other said, ‘Biden’s going to win and he’s going to come after the guns.’ My instructors and I became like gun therapists for people who never had guns before or really didn’t like guns. One lady came in here in tears, with her teenagers, and she said, ‘This goes against everything I believe in, but I need my family to learn how to protect themselves.’”
