As pockets of anti-law enforcement activists demand that jurisdictions strip funding from police departments, ordinary citizens around the country assert that they are resorting to self-defense, and are buying weapons.
The assertions come amid a nationwide spike in personal weapons sales. In June, the FBI checked the backgrounds of 3,931,607 potential gun buyers, according to the Bureau. In the same month, Americans bought 2,387,524 guns, reported Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting (SAAF), an industry research and consulting group.
“The demand has absolutely exploded beyond anything we have seen over the last 20 years,” said Jurgen Brauer, chief economist for SAAF.
No official data explain the rise, Brauer told Just the News.
“If you walk into a firearms store, they will not ask you the reason for buying a firearm,” he said. “There are small nonscientific anecdotal reports, though. Primarily it’s a security concern where people are not sure if public security is available while they are on lockdown.”
Individual gun owners echoed and expanded on that explanation.
“I saw what happened in Seattle, when police couldn’t get into the protest zone,” said single mother Kathleen Morrison, citing alarm over violent crimes inside the now-dismantled Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone (CHOP). “I thought, what if that happens here,” where she lives on the opposite end of the country, in Virginia. “I signed up for lessons, and I bought a gun.”