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Posted 02/24/2021 in Firearms

Boom in gun sales continues in 2021 !!!


Boom in gun sales continues in 2021 !!!

Toledo-area gun store owners are reporting bare shelves and a months-long backlog as the demand for firearms and especially ammunition continues to exceed the supply.

They expect the 2020 record firearm and ammunition sales levels to continue at least for several months until pandemic-based anxiety and increased societal division subside.

Local stores are reporting an influx of first-time gun buyers, pointing to doubts about the election and fears that President Biden might keep his gun-control campaign promises.

His agenda includes making manufacturers culpable for products used in crimes, stopping the sale of guns and ammunition on the Internet, banning high-capacity magazines, and reviving the 1990s ban on assault weapons.

Ken Shields, owner of Cleland's Outdoor World, in western Lucas County near Swanton, said his sales have been at an all-time high since last March, and that most of his customers have been first-time buyers.

Firearms sales at his business are up 90 percent or maybe more from what they were before the pandemic, Mr. Shields said.

Miles to the east in another part of Lucas County, Mike Felstein, owner of Woodville Surplus, in Oregon, is seeing the same thing.

“We fared very well because of guns and ammo,” Mr. Felstein said. “It was everything. It was handguns. It was ammunition. It was semi-automatic rifles. Military rifles were very strong and they still are.”

Both said it all started with the corona virus lock downs.

“When everybody got forced into their homes, everybody was worried about the direction things were heading, so they started building home defenses and things like that,” Mr. Shields said. “And then all the ... protests started and everybody realized that the police might not be there to help them out, so they started buying handguns like crazy.”

Ammunition sales, especially, skyrocketed, depleting the supplies, he said.

Mr. Felstein said he is still waiting on ammunition orders placed last January.

“Vendors can't ship anything,” Mr. Felstein said. “I am getting very little product in the way of ammo or firearms. I am getting almost nothing.”

Purchases by first-time gun owners, Mr. Shields said, are contributing to the shortage of ammunition.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearm industry trade association, reports 21 million background checks for the sale of firearms in 2020 — 5.3 million, or 34 percent, more than the previous record 15.7 million in 2016.

In terms of what's driving gun ownership right now, the NSSF found that 58 percent of firearm purchases were among African American men and women, the largest increase of any demographic group.

Brian Byrd, president of the local chapter of the National African American Gun Association whose group is called Deacons 4 Defense Gun Club, told The Blade it focuses on firearms education, legal and responsible firearm ownership. Despite the name, membership is open to any race and nationally seems to attract more women, he said.

Spikes in gun ownership seem to coincide with more civil unrest, he said.

It started spiking among people of color when President Donald Trump was elected in 2016.

“People were nervous, and some people didn’t think it was justified, but what did we just recently have? We had a Confederate flag being carried through the Capitol building. That’s a fact,” Mr. Byrd said.

Mr. Byrd attributes the recent spike to general civil unrest and the political climate in the country, saying “people wanted to make sure they could protect themselves personally and in their homes.”

If each of the reported five million first-time gun buyers in the nation in 2020 each bought at least one box of 50 rounds, that takes 250 million additional rounds off store shelves, Mr. Shields estimated.

“It taxed the industry so hard that the supply wasn't there for the increased demand,” he said. “So now it is very difficult to get ammo and firearms because of the surge.”

Asked what kinds of weapons have been in the highest demand, he said the situation has changed since the start of the pandemic.

“In the beginning, it was home defense [concerns] so it was a lot of handguns and shotguns, then it was handguns and some AR[-style rifles] throughout the protesting... But now with [President] Biden getting into office, the ARs are starting to run off the shelf,” Mr. Shields said.

AR stands for ArmaLite rifle. ArmaLite is a company that originally developed the semi-automatic rifle with easily interchangeable parts.

Mr. Felstein said the supply of firearms and ammunition is lagging behind the demand primarily because of hoarding by customers and because manufacturers are operating on limited staffs amid the pandemic.

Mr. Shields said he expects ammunition shortages to continue throughout 2021 because the nation’s main producers of ammunition are backlogged about a year.

“At this point, the industry is anticipating [the ammunition] demand level to stay elevated,” Mr. Shields said.

Ammunition production is farther behind than firearms production. Backlogs for AR orders, for example, range from four-to-six weeks to months, depending on the company he is ordering from, Mr. Shields said.

“It's like a perfect storm right now – the pandemic, the supply and demand, and all these protests and stuff going on,” Mr. Shields said “It can be a while before we see any kind of normalcy. It can be a year, it can be two years – who knows?”



Mr. Felstein said he expects sales to soften in 2021.

“I expect it to calm down this year,” he said. “The virus is eventually going to become more controlled this year. You don't have Trump spewing out fake news all the time... And there's no presidential election this year.”

But he still expects the 2021 sales to be comparatively high.

“There's also such a thing as pent-up demand for people having not been able to get what they've been looking for,” Mr. Felstein said. “And that will probably carry us for another six months... [before] producers and suppliers eventually catch up – perhaps in the second half of this year.”

The number of people taking concealed-weapon classes and basic-pistol and private lessons offered at his business is also “way up,” Mr. Shields said. The number of those going through all types of weapons training is up by several times.

The concealed-weapon classes at his business are now being scheduled at least a month in advance.


Blade staff writer Kaitlin Durbin contributed to this report.                                                                                                        First Published January 31, 2021, 12:35pm

Original Post; https://www.toledoblade.com/local/Coronavirus/2021/01/31/Boom-in-gun-sales-continues-in-2021/stories/20210129111


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