Fear of a Biden-Harris administration drove Americans to purchase a record number of guns and ammunition in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. And with the election results still uncertain, gun purchases will continue to soar, the Daily Wire reports.
The presidential election is just the latest factor to contribute to a spike in gun sales this year. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated government lockdowns and shortages resulted in an unprecedented growth in firearms ownership in the United States, Ammo.com reports, with two million guns sold in the month of March 2020 alone. An additional three million were sold between March and July.
Data shows the election has also had a significant impact on gun sales. FBI figures reveal more than 3.3 million background checks for gun sales were conducted in October. This marks a 14-percent increase from the prior month, and a 38-percent increase from one year ago.
The Democratic presidential ticket is radically anti-Second Amendment, and when polls falsely indicated Biden was going to handily win the presidency, Americans responded accordingly.
“They’re buying anything they can get their hands on. High capacity magazines, guns, ammo anything that they’re calling assault weapons,” said Chris Harding, owner of H&H Tactical in Exeter, Pennsylvania. “A year ago, before all this started, we would roughly sell 2,000 rounds a month. Now we’re selling between 50 to 70 thousand rounds a week.”
Harding told Fox 56 that 60 percent of his customer base is now first-time gun owners. Those customers have stated they fear a Democratic gun grab if Biden wins the White House.
Forbes reports retailers have said their customers are motivated by political and civil unrest, COVID-19, and the “risk of increased gun control if Democrats win the White House.”
Tellingly, Fox News reports gun sales in the seven key swing states showed a 77-percent increase overall from 2019.
Americans are clearly frightened by the impacts a Biden presidency would have on the Second Amendment.
Just days before Election Day, Biden tweeted, “It’s long past time we take action to end the scourge of gun violence in America. As president, I’ll ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, implement universal background checks, and enact other common-sense reforms to end our gun violence epidemic.”
But Biden’s tweet should not have shocked anyone, given his anti-Second Amendment record.
As noted by Ammo.com, Biden voted for the 1986 Firearms Owners Protection Act, and was instrumental in the passage of the Brady Bill. As a Senator, Biden wrote the “assault weapons” ban that expired in 2004.
During his run for president, Biden told former Representative Beto O’Rourke that he would have a “lead” role in reforming gun control laws in a Biden administration. O’Rourke has stated he would forcibly confiscate firearms from law-abiding citizens.
“If someone does not turn in an AR-15 or an AK-47, one of these weapons of war, or brings it out in public and brandishes it, in an attempt to intimidate … then that weapon will be taken from them,” Beto threatened. “If they persist, there will be other consequences from law enforcement.”
This has certainly driven Americans to their local gun dealers. According to Justin Anderson, marketing director for Hyatt Guns of Charlotte, North Carolina, AR-15s in particular are “flying out the door” over concerns of a “Biden effect.”
Biden’s campaign website defines gun violence as a “public health epidemic,” and we have already seen what overreaching government looks like during a public health crisis.
Kamala Harris’ record on Second Amendment rights is equally abysmal.
During her time as attorney general of California, she signed on to an amicus brief claiming that governments have total authority to ban handguns. She also fought to preserve the “good cause” requirement that allowed California to prevent qualified individuals from carrying concealed weapons during her tenure as attorney general.
She has also stated multiple times throughout her Democratic primary campaign that she would help enact gun-control executive orders.
“So I will apologize to no one, both in terms of what I am prepared to do but also the action that I intend to take, to say if Congress doesn’t act, I by executive action will act,” she said in September 2019. That same month, she admitted to supporting government-mandated buybacks of AR-15s and other semiautomatic rifles.
In April 2019, Harris tweeted her opposition to allowing teachers to be armed in the classroom.
“We need to give teachers a raise — not guns,” she tweeted, even after admitting to owning a gun herself just days earlier.
Earlier this year, Harris said she would ban states from enacting “stand your ground” laws, claiming they are “racist.”
“Senator Harris’ record on the Second Amendment should be viewed as a direct threat to every gun owner in the country,” said Gun Owners of America Board member Sam Paredes in a statement following Biden’s announcement that Harris would be his running mate. “Both her words and actions as an elected politician reveal the extreme objective of her politics.”
But Tap Smith, manager of Blackbeard Armory, notes that even a Trump victory would likely prompt surges in gun sales because of the predictable violence from the Left that would follow.
“I unfortunately believe there will be a lot of rioting and stuff if Trump is successful in re-election,” said Smith.
