“The new coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest after the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing movement to defund police are bringing in new buyers worried about their personal safety, according to buyers, store owners and gun experts,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “In June, background checks for firearms were up 136%, compared to a year earlier … background checks in June for civilians seeking a license to carry were the highest since the FBI began conducting checks 20 years ago.”
FBI statistics that were released at the start of the month showed that 3,931,607 background checks were processed last month, which is by far the most ever recorded. The previous all-time record was set in March—when parts of the U.S. began going into shutdown over the coronavirus—when 3,740,688 were conducted.
-READ MOREFirearm sales in June were the highest monthly sales since data collection began in 1998: 3.9M firearms sold. @phil_wellesley and Robin McKnight explore the trend, as well as potential causes and consequences. https://t.co/X7ZdI0zP3X pic.twitter.com/WKRchQ07SK
— Brookings Econ (@BrookingsEcon) July 13, 2020