The violence that we have seen in major cities across the country has proven to be bad news for gun control advocates.
Breitbart reports that August of 2020 was the eighth straight month in which a record was set for background checks, both for gun sales and gun transfers.
To clarify, it was the eighth straight month in which firearm background checks set a new record for that individual month. In other words, January set a new record for January, February for February, March for March, and so on through August.
Some numbers
Breitbart’s report was based on numbers recently provided by the FBI. Those numbers showed that 3,115,063 National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks were conducted in August 2020.
To provide some perspective, the previous record for the month of August was 2,366,824. As you can see, that record was demolished.
The all-time record for the most firearm background checks in a month ever was also set during this eight-month stretch.
According to the FBI, the new record was set in June 2020, with 3,931,607 NICS checks. The previous all-time record was March 2020, at 3,740,688.
Some more numbers
It is not, however, just background checks that are increasing. In a separate article, Breitbart reported on the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which found that, thus far in 2020, there have been almost five million first time gun buyers.
Larry Keane, the NSSF senior vice president, stated, “This is a tectonic shift in the firearm and ammunition industry marketplace and complete transformation of today’s gun-owning community. These first-time buyers represent a group of people who, until now, were agnostic regarding firearm ownership.”
He added, “That’s rapidly changing, and these Americans are taking hold of their God-given right to keep and bear arms and protect themselves and their loved one.”
What’s going on?
One would have to be fairly naive not to attribute these increases to the recent violence that has plagued America since the death of George Floyd. Through a series of causes and effects, that event has weakened America’s police force to the point at which people, perhaps for the first time in their lives, are considering the possibility of having to defend themselves. This has to play some role in the records we have seen in the past few months.
It sure was smart of our Founders to add that Second Amendment.
The post Its over: 2020 deals gun control a fatal blow first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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