I’ll take riots in Philly for $500, Alex<\/p>\n
Why people are buying guns at a record pace in Pennsylvania in the run-up to Election Day<\/a><\/p>\n Charlotte Heller, a 71-year-old grandmother from Lower Macungie Township, was never a fan of guns.<\/p>\n Then came 2020.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me tell you, I\u2019ve never liked guns. I was always kind of afraid of guns,\u201d Charlotte Heller said. \u201cI felt like we didn\u2019t need them.\u201d<\/p>\n But 2020, of course, is a year like no other \u2015 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\u2019ve got a perfect storm for one of the most basic human emotions.<\/p>\n Fear.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever 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\u2019s been kind of like a triple whammy.\u201d<\/p>\n 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. 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2032s sales will top the record set in 2016 of 16.6 million guns.<\/p>\n For the Hellers, the summer protests and news footage of property damage and looting in some cities made gun ownership seem necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cWe both felt that the way this country is leaning toward, it\u2019s just not like the country we grew up in,\u201d she said. \u201cProtesting is fine when it\u2019s peaceful, but when they started looting … that was just ridiculous. I\u2019d rather be safe than sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n Presidential politics The store\u2019s owner, Gerard Stezelberger, cannot remember a time when he\u2019s seen so many first-time gun owners, estimating he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Any presidential election year usually brings a bump in sales, store manager Bill Stoneback said, but this year has been so unusual that it\u2019s impossible to attribute the bump to just the election.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just been one thing after another,\u201d Stoneback said of the last eight months.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n State police said the trend started with the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d said Capt. Mark Shaver, director of the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Records and Identification.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Historically speaking, guns become more popular when the Democratic Party \u2015 known for gun control policies \u2015 is on the ascent, said Nicholas Johnson, professor at the Fordham University School of Law.<\/p>\n It happened during the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, even though Obama\u2019s first campaign did not focus on gun policies.<\/p>\n When a Republican is in the White House, guns sales don\u2019t tend to jump, Johnson said. That\u2019s because there\u2019s no fear of future restrictions.<\/p>\n Though gun violence policies haven\u2019t been a major part of Joe Biden\u2019s platform on the campaign trail, there\u2019s a \u201cwidespread view that Biden and Harris are pretty serious about gun control,” Johnson said. And Biden\u2019s part in the passage of the federal assault weapons ban in 1994 only feeds that notion, Johnson said.<\/p>\n Gun sales are shattering records this year, propelled by panic buying from the pandemic, summer protests and the presidential election.<\/p>\n Afraid for their safety Stoneback said the pandemic-related buying was intense, but guns moved even faster off the shelves during the summer protests.<\/p>\n \u201cWith rioting and looters, that was worse than COVID,\u201d Stoneback said of buyers’ fears. \u201cWe don\u2019t really ask people why they\u2019re buying a gun, but sometimes you do have a conversation. They were telling us that they\u2019re afraid for their own safety.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lockdown broke our supply chain,\u201d said Stezelberger, noting that store has only about a third of its usual stock in weapons.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cliberal tears,\u201d Siegel said the politics of who is getting into gun ownership in recent years is not as obvious as one might assume.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t always accurate.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Public health impact \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt in my mind that there\u2019s going to be a negative public health impact with all of these gun sales,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a big concern in families with children.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople want to be safe,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we push that more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019t fire it until late October.<\/p>\n \u201cI still have to get used to it. I want to be able to do it all comfortably by myself,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I have to be honest: I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,29,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rkba","category-safety","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61344,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61343\/revisions\/61344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGerard 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)
\nThough 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.<\/p>\n
\nThe Hellers bought their handgun in Relic Hunter Firing Line in North Whitehall Township in September, and started a training course there this month.<\/p>\n
\nThe Hellers experience, Johnson said, is one he\u2019s seen anecdotally around the country as well: People previously agnostic about gun ownership are tending toward support, he said.<\/p>\n
\nSiegel, the Boston University professor, said public health experts look at the flood of firearm purchases with some wariness, noting that though there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n