Minnesotans continue national gun-buying spree
(The Center Square) — Gun and ammo sales have skyrocketed in Minnesota since 2020.
In Jan. 2021, National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) totaled 87,583 background checks for purchases of firearms, up from Jan. 2020’s of 56,561.
In 2020, The FBI conducted 958,391 NICS background checks in Minnesota, a 276,035 increase from 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic drove people into outdoor activities that are naturally socially distanced.
Vista Outdoors saw total sales increase 35% from the prior year to $575 million; shooting sports sales increased by 41%, and outdoor product sales jumped 24%.
“Continued strength in outdoor recreation markets, combined with our ongoing focus on execution excellence, resulted in strong top and bottom-line growth across the entire company,” Vista Outdoor Chief Executive Officer Chris Metz said in a statement.
“Strong outdoor participation trends that began in the early days of COVID lockdowns have continued into calendar 2021 and do not appear to be slowing down. “
The same trend applies nationally for gun sales.
Nine of the 10 highest weeks for NICS firearm background checks were in 2020 or 2021.
The highest week on record was March 16, 2020 through March 22, 2020 — the first national recognition of the COVID-19 pandemic. During that week, NICS reported it had conducted more than 1.197 million background checks.
That’s 244,000 more background checks in one week than the seventh-highest week in December 2012, when Washington legislators and President Barack Obama publicly discussed gun restrictions after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.
From Jan. 11, 2021 through Jan. 17, 2021, 1.08 million background checks were conducted — the second-highest week on record, edging out the third-highest week on record from Jan. 4, 2021 through Jan. 10, 2021, when there were 1.07 million background checks conducted.
Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting (SAAF) estimated January 2021 firearm sales at 2.2 million units, a 79% increase from January 2020. However, that’s not the largest increase in recent history.
“January 2021 certainly started off with a sales ‘bang’ due to the turmoil surrounding the confirmation and inauguration of Mr. Biden as the new U.S. President,” SAAF Chief Economist Jurgen Brauer said. “The 79% year-over-year increase, however, was NOT unprecedented – an even higher increase, of just over 100%, was experienced in January 2013, the month Mr. Obama’s second presidential term began.”
Disclaimer: This content is distributed by The Center Square
