The nation’s gun craze propelled by politics and the coronavirus has now hit 16-straight months of shattering records, with April sales of at least 1.8 million and FBI background checks logging over 3.5 million.
The agency’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System recorded more checks in April 2021 than any other April. The FBI also said that each of the past 16 months has tallied record counts, dating back to December 2019.
Pushing the most recent surge has been concerns about President Joe Biden’s calls to ban semi-automatic firearms, namely AR-15-style rifles. They continue to be the most popular guns purchased in the United States.
The Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting group, which estimates how many FBI background checks are for gun sales, said at least 1.8 million firearms were sold last month, a record for April.
What’s more, it said that rifle sales surged.
SAAF Chief Economist Jurgen Brauer said, “The April 2021 number of just over 1.8 million firearms sold is large. In fact, it is the largest April figure on record. While the year-over-year percentage increase of 2.1% is relatively modest, it nonetheless represents growth on top of last year’s COVID-19 panic-driven sales boom. Handgun sales declined in April 2021 relative to the same month last year, so that long-gun sales drove this April’s overall increase.”
At Hyatt Guns of Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the nation’s largest gun stores, sales surged as customers received COVID-19 stimulus money from Washington.
And many recent first-time buyers came back to buy more, Marketing Director Justin Anderson said.
“Sales continue to be brisk, and we’re showing growth in the 25-35% range compared to last year. This is more natural growth and isn’t strictly being driven by political or other outside forces,” he told Secrets.
Anderson added, “More than likely, many of the 8 million people that bought their first gun in the last year have caught the bug and are buying more guns and accessories. While ammo remains scarce, Remington’s ammunition plant is back online, and we think this will help to mitigate the unprecedented demand. We expect another busy summer, both online and in the store, and another record year.”
