I’ll take riots in Philly for $500, Alex
Why people are buying guns at a record pace in Pennsylvania in the run-up to Election Day
Charlotte Heller, a 71-year-old grandmother from Lower Macungie Township, was never a fan of guns.
Then came 2020.
This September, Heller and her 73-year-old husband Ira joined scores of other Pennsylvanians in becoming first-time gun owners during a year expected to break gun purchase records across the country.
“Let me tell you, I’ve never liked guns. I was always kind of afraid of guns,” Charlotte Heller said. “I felt like we didn’t need them.”
But 2020, of course, is a year like no other ― fueling gun sales with a combination of factors, experts say. Start with the coronavirus pandemic and shortage of basic supplies, then add a wave of protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and the resulting property damage and violence, and cap it with one of most divisive presidential elections in modern history, and you’ve got a perfect storm for one of the most basic human emotions.
Fear.
“Whenever people get fearful, one of their responses is to go out and purchase guns,” said Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. “And this year it’s been kind of like a triple whammy.”
Gerard Stezelberger, the owner of Relic Hunter Firing Line in North Whitehall Township, stands among guns for sale at his store in Coplay. Gun sales are shattering records this year, propelled by panic-buying from the pandemic, summer protests and the presidential election.
Gerard Stezelberger, the owner of Relic Hunter Firing Line in North Whitehall Township, stands among guns for sale at his store in Coplay. Gun sales are shattering records this year, propelled by panic-buying from the pandemic, summer protests and the presidential election. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Though there is no national registry for gun sales, the number of background checks conducted by state and federal authorities offers a glimpse into the rate of purchases.
Pennsylvania State Police completed 406,151 gun background checks during the third quarter of this year, shattering the previous record of 369,807 set in the first quarter of 2013. The number of checks in the third quarter of 2019 was 225,214.
The state figures mirror a national trend. Information from Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting, a research consultancy on firearms and ammunition, said that year-to-date sales in August 2020 numbered 15 million, exceeding total purchases in 2019 by 1 million. Analysts believe 2020′s sales will top the record set in 2016 of 16.6 million guns.
For the Hellers, the summer protests and news footage of property damage and looting in some cities made gun ownership seem necessary.
“We both felt that the way this country is leaning toward, it’s just not like the country we grew up in,” she said. “Protesting is fine when it’s peaceful, but when they started looting … that was just ridiculous. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
Presidential politics
The Hellers bought their handgun in Relic Hunter Firing Line in North Whitehall Township in September, and started a training course there this month.
The store’s owner, Gerard Stezelberger, cannot remember a time when he’s seen so many first-time gun owners, estimating he’s had about three times more first-timers than usual. Training and safety courses are packed with participants, requiring the store to add extra sessions to keep up with demand.
Any presidential election year usually brings a bump in sales, store manager Bill Stoneback said, but this year has been so unusual that it’s impossible to attribute the bump to just the election.
“It’s just been one thing after another,” Stoneback said of the last eight months.
Customers shop for guns and accessories at Relic Hunter Firing Line in North Whitehall Township. Gun sales are shattering records this year, propelled by panic-buying from the pandemic, summer protests and the presidential election.
State police said the trend started with the pandemic.
“We began to see an increase of [firearm-related background checks] activity in the first quarter as Pennsylvania and the rest of the country began learning about the COVID-19 pandemic, and that trend has continued,” said Capt. Mark Shaver, director of the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Records and Identification.
The single highest volume day in the third quarter was July 23, in the midst of Black Lives Matter protests. On that day alone, state police completed 7,120 background checks.
Historically speaking, guns become more popular when the Democratic Party ― known for gun control policies ― is on the ascent, said Nicholas Johnson, professor at the Fordham University School of Law.
It happened during the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, even though Obama’s first campaign did not focus on gun policies.
When a Republican is in the White House, guns sales don’t tend to jump, Johnson said. That’s because there’s no fear of future restrictions.
Though gun violence policies haven’t been a major part of Joe Biden’s platform on the campaign trail, there’s a “widespread view that Biden and Harris are pretty serious about gun control,” Johnson said. And Biden’s part in the passage of the federal assault weapons ban in 1994 only feeds that notion, Johnson said.
Gun sales are shattering records this year, propelled by panic buying from the pandemic, summer protests and the presidential election.
Afraid for their safety
The Hellers experience, Johnson said, is one he’s seen anecdotally around the country as well: People previously agnostic about gun ownership are tending toward support, he said.
Stoneback said the pandemic-related buying was intense, but guns moved even faster off the shelves during the summer protests.
“With rioting and looters, that was worse than COVID,” Stoneback said of buyers’ fears. “We don’t really ask people why they’re buying a gun, but sometimes you do have a conversation. They were telling us that they’re afraid for their own safety.”
For gun stores like Relic Hunter, the increase in demand came at a time when the lockdown from the coronavirus pandemic had already reduced supply.
“The lockdown broke our supply chain,” said Stezelberger, noting that store has only about a third of its usual stock in weapons.
Just as quickly as the store receives shipments of handguns, the firearms are flying off the shelves. No one can be picky right now, Stoneback said.
Though the politics at Relic Hunter are impossible to miss, with Donald Trump campaign signs staked on the property and coffee mug on the counter to catch “liberal tears,” Siegel said the politics of who is getting into gun ownership in recent years is not as obvious as one might assume.
A 2019 study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, predating the purchases fueled by COVID or protests and looting, showed that prevailing stereotypes about gun owners in the U.S. weren’t always accurate.
While the majority of those surveyed said guns made them feel safe and were essential to their sense of freedom, most also did not engage regularly with gun-related activities including recreation, NRA memberships or political activity in support of gun rights. Instead, for the majority of respondents, gun ownership was simple a matter of self-defense in the home.
Public health impact
Siegel, the Boston University professor, said public health experts look at the flood of firearm purchases with some wariness, noting that though there’s no clear correlation between guns in the home and deliberate violence toward others, the data is clearer about the likelihood of guns being used for suicides or in gun accidents.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that there’s going to be a negative public health impact with all of these gun sales,” he said. “And there’s a big concern in families with children.”
Though Pennsylvania, like most states, does not require gun training for the ownership of a firearm, Stezelberger said most buyers want to learn how to safely use and store weapons.
“People want to be safe,” he said. “And we push that more than anything.”
With six grandchildren, Charlotte Heller said learning how to safely store the gun was a priority. Though she bought the weapon in September, she didn’t fire it until late October.
“I still have to get used to it. I want to be able to do it all comfortably by myself,” she said. “But I have to be honest: I loved it.”