The Post-Election Gun-Buying Surge Is Underway

Another wave of customers, both new and old, is flooding gun stores across the country in the wake of the 2020 election. While Joe Biden and his anti-gun co-horts were denied the solid Congressional majority that they were expecting, which is going to make his gun and magazine ban an iffy proposition in the near future, Biden’s already making plans to use executive and administrative actions to target legal gun owners. As a result, gun stores are just as busy now as they were in the weeks before the election.

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“It’s just, it’s been crazy and every week its getting worse,” said Chris Harding, owner of H&H Tactical in Exeter.

For a Sunday afternoon, business was steady at H&H Tactical.

Harding tells us nearly 60 percent of his customer base are first time gun buyers, as ammo continues to remain a hot commodity, especially given the heated political climate.

“They’re buying anything they can get their hands on. High capacity magazines, guns, ammo anything that they’re calling assault weapons A year ago, before all this started we would roughly sell 2,000 rounds a month. Now we’re selling between 50 to 70 thousand rounds a week,” said Harding.

H&H Tactical is located in northeastern PA, but the continued boom in gun and ammo sales isn’t limited to one region of the country. From southern California to Nebraska’s panhandle, folks are lining up to try to get at least a little of whatever’s in stock.

 John Erickson at Flatwater Arms said business in Bridgeport is thriving beyond seasonal buys, like waterfowl guns.

“Oh, my goodness, this year’s been tremendous, it’s hard to keep things resupplied,” he said.

He offers gun-smithing and cleaning services,concealed carry classes and other hunting and fishing gear to offset the down periods in gun and ammo sales, but 2020 is the exception, where gun sales ticked up during March, and haven’t slackened.

Erickson, who’s run the shop since 2014 said a lot of first-timers have signed up for concealed carry classes and purchased guns at the shop.

“Just last month, I had four people sign up for the class, never owned firearms, never owned ammunition before, brand new,” he said. “I was able to get 240 rounds of 9mm for them, but I had to pay street price, more than twice as expensive.”
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I don’t expect that to change for at least the next three or four months. November and December are typically the strongest months for gun sales anyway, but this year there’s not only the added pressure of Joe Biden’s election. COVID cases are rising across the country and new lockdowns being threatened. The first round of lockdowns back in March is what prompted 2020’s initial surge in gun sales, and Lockdown 2.0 will likely have a similar effect.
As for the political situation, if at least one of the two Georgia runoff elections for U.S. Senate ends with a Republican win next month, we might start to see the market settle down a bit in early 2021 as the congressional threat to our Second Amendment rights recedes for the time being. Still, given the additional factors of COVID and the threat of continued unrest, I’m not convinced that sales will drop substantially, even if Republicans maintain control of the Senate next year.
The Great Gun Run of 2020 is most likely going to continue into 2021, which is bad news for those of us who are hoping to find 9mm or .223 ammo for sale in our local gun stores. Ultimately, however, it’s good news for the Second Amendment, as the millions of new gun owners around the country serve to underscore the fact that our right to keep and bear arms is just as fundamentally important as it’s ever been, and we’re not going to let it be taken from us.
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