Weekly Spotlight 4/12/24 – 4/18/24
Gun Sales Remain Strong But Haven’t Yet Seen Election Year Spike
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, gun sales across America reached all-time highs. Today, while sales of firearms have understandably waned from that unprecedented peak in 2020 and 2021, Americans are still arming themselves at levels higher than before the pandemic. In March, there were 1.4 million gun sales, lower than last year’s total from the same month, but still a markedly strong figure.
With 2024 being an election year and some of the top candidates for federal office continuing to promote gun-grabbing legislation like bans on so-called “assault weapons” bans, it’s very likely that gun sales figures will rise from this current dip over the next several months. As Stephen Gutowski at The Reload points out, there were major year-over-year sales increases in 2020, 2018, 2016, 2012, 2008, and 2004. As election season heats up this summer, it wouldn’t be surprising to see 2024 experience a similar bump.
Much like the drivers behind the record-breaking sales figures during the pandemic, an election-year uptick in firearms sales might be indicative of how Americans feel about the future. It signals that they are deeply concerned about their Second Amendment rights being threatened by certain anti-gun lawmakers taking full control of Congress and the White House. Rhetoric from politicians like Joe Biden and Gavin Newsom does little to assuage those fears, which provides all the more reason for responsible gun owners to get involved in the political process.
Setting aside the election-related implications of the gun sales figures, it’s clear that the years-long streak of more than one million gun sales per month is a continuation of a more diverse array of Americans seeking to arm themselves. The number of women, Black Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos becoming their own first line of defense will likely continue to increase, which demonstrates that gun ownership and self-defense are being embraced by all Americans.
The bottom line is that the number of gun owners across the nation will continue to rise, meaning the voting bloc represented by those Americans who exercise their Second Amendment right should become even more influential. The USCCA-FSL Action Fund is here to help gun owners become an educated and organized coalition of citizen lobbyists who will play a key role in protecting our foundational rights.
OTHER NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
- Washington Times: Gun Rights Of Illegal Immigrants Face New Test By Biden Administration
The federal government is appealing a judge’s ruling that found the Constitution allows some immigrants without documentation to possess guns, plowing new ground in the quickly evolving debate over Second Amendment rights. The Justice Department filed its notice of appeal Thursday with Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, whose ruling last month dismissed charges against an undocumented immigrant who’d been prosecuted for gun possession after he started blasting away at cars driving by him in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.
Democratic lawmakers in Augusta are plowing forward Friday with an attempt to impose a so-called “Red Flag” gun control bill, even has hundreds of thousands of Mainers remain without power and unable to participate in the public hearing. The bill — LD 2283 — was sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross on March 24; however, the public was only made aware that the controversial gun control bill would have a public hearing late Thursday night.
A Washington judge ruled the state’s high-capacity magazine ban unconstitutional on Monday, but the law will remain in place for now after an emergency order from the state Supreme Court. Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Gary Bashor ruled Washington lawmakers’ 2022 ban on sales of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds violates both the state and U.S. constitutions, the Seattle Times reported.
When it comes to law-abiding adults ages 18-20, the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) should be renamed the Never Instant Criminal Background Check System. An article posted to the FBI’s website on March 25 shows how the agency uses the ill-named Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 (BSCA) to impose a waiting period on young adult gun buyers.