While some still try to sell gun control after nationwide rioting, looting and a few high-profile police misconduct cases, Americans aren’t buying it. Instead, they’re buying guns and ammo at a record pace. In fact, they are buying so much that gun shops simply can’t keep product on the shelves.
In the Chicagoland suburbs, one big gun shop sold out of two pallets of 9mm ball ammo in three days after the rioting started, 128,000 rounds. While full metal jacket ammo makes for good practice ammo, in a pinch it surely beats nothing for those without defensive ammunition.
Meanwhile, in the middle of flyover country, stores like the Stock and Field farm store photographed above from Pontiac, Illinois tell the tale. While they have a few boxes of .40 S&W remaining, their stock of common self-defense handgun calibers remains nil.
The most popular self-defense calibers like 9mm and 5.56 sold out long ago. They printed up a bright sign to answer the most commonly asked questions at their gun counter.
They haven’t added .380 or .38 Special to the sign. And the only .45 they have comes in $200 battlepacks of ball ammo.
While practice ammo can occasionally be found, self-defense loads tend to sell out within hours of hitting the shelves.
Firearm selection among common self-defense calibers also remains quite thin. Sure, you can buy a single-action revolver in .22 caliber or maybe .45 Colt, but finding your preferred 9mm pistol in Middle America will prove…challenging.
The buying surge has even garnered some ink in the USA Today documenting the real world conditions on the ground at gun shops across America.
Angel Rambert, 26, bought her first gun on Monday after weekend protests tore through Atlanta, demolishing storefronts and stirring civil unrest.
An AT&T store across from her apartment in Buckhead, Georgia, was ransacked, Rambert said. And owning a gun would give her a greater sense of safety.
“During the times we’re living in, you just never know what might happen,” Rambert said.
She was met with long lines at two nearby gun shops when she went to purchase a pistol. “At first, I was surprised at the number of people, but I was happy to see so many of us exercising our amendments,” Rambert said.
…Gun and ammunition sales have lifted since mid-March when the pandemic was declared. And higher-than-average sales continued through May. Now, there are signs that gun sales may start to surge again in June.
Local media in Alabama reported an uptick in gun sales on Monday after peaceful protests took place in downtown Birmingham. And gun stores in the Los Angeles area also have had customers lining up to buy, captured across news reports.
When USA Today covers the run on guns — and people exercising their amendments — you know it’s really bad. Or good.