Gary Diehl with his family runs a gun and ammo shop in upper New York State ran two background checks for gun purchases six minutes apart. The ID numbers given to those checks were more than 10,000 different numbers, which meant over 10,000 background checks were requested in that six-minute span, a startling number that caught Gary's attention.

The FBI reported this year in July that background checks nearly doubled when comparing 2020 to 2019 background checks, and that a record number of background checks were performed nationwide in June, with 3.9 million done in that month alone. The computerized background system has been so busy it has regularly seized up or crashed, according to several gun dealers.

The National Shooting Sports Federation reported in mid-July that gun sales for the first half of 2020 were up 95 percent over 2019, and ammunition sales were up 139 percent.

The reasons for the rush on gun sales was pandemic-related fears as well as continued civil unrest that have many people who hadn't thought of owning a gun before heading to a local sport shop. Gary Diehl said, “I can't keep guns in stock, every gun we get in is gone within a day.”

Jay Wilson at McLain's Sporting Goods in Endicott, NY said, “We can't get enough guns and ammunition. I've had ladies come in here who have never held a gun before, and they want to buy a gun.”

The gun rush has included many people who had never before considered purchasing a firearm, until they started fearing for their safety as the pandemic took hold and civil unrest erupted in parts of the country.”

Jacob Long, spokesperson for online retailer Widener's Reloading and Shooting Supply, had this to say, “Ammo demand remains high in light of everything going on in our country right now. At a time of year that we usually see things slow down, inventory is extremely tight and we're getting messages from customers struggling to find their calibers in stock anywhere.”

Local gun shops here in Sullivan County have reported that gun and ammo sales are now the best they have ever been.

Jack Danchak is the President of the Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs of Sullivan County.