Article from For Liberty by Norm Leahy.

Americans are buying firearms at record rates, continuing a trend that began with the upsurge in coronavirus cases earlier this year and extended through the spring and summer as protests and uncertainty about law enforcement arose in the summer.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation processed 7.8 million background checks for gun purchases from March to June, according to National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry trade group.

In June, background checks for firearms were up 136%, compared to a year earlier, according to the trade group, which gives the best proxy for gun sales. Background checks in June for civilians seeking a license to carry were the highest since the FBI began conducting checks 20 years ago.

The most common purchase is handguns:

Nearly two handguns, commonly used for self-protection, are being sold for every rifle or shotgun, according to federal data.

Included among the wave of buyers are those who didn’t think they would need a firearm and those who were “previously critical of those who did” purchase guns.

Image Credit: By Cory Doctorow (Flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons