May 6, 2020; 2:42 PM EST.
written by Net Advisor™
WASHINGTON, DC. The term “Hunkering Down” during the Coronavirus has another meaning. Millions of Americas have sought to arm themselves over what we argued was the media sending the public into panic over the ‘Coronavirus Pandemic‘.
A state and or federal background check is required to purchase a firearm by all federally licensed firearm dealers. Since November 1998 over 1.7 million people were stopped from purchasing a legal firearm due to criminal law violations. Firearm dealers also have the right to refuse sales and report persons of interest to law enforcement.
We reviewed the latest FBI firearm background check data, made some calculations, and found some staggering numbers.
Firearm Background Checks up 41% in March 2020 vs. March 2019.
The number of background checks to purchase a legal firearm in the USA skyrocketed in March 2020 by 1,095,837 or up 41.43% compared to the same period last year.
From February to March 2020 firearm background check requests were up 938,221 or +33.48%.
The data also shows background checks to purchase firearm(s) in April 2020 increased by 576,879 or up 24.71% versus the same period a year ago. This was a drop in background request checks since March 2020. We think the drop was due to firearm and ammo shortages in the U.S., and that some states temporally forced the shutdown of legal firearm dealers until the Trump Admin deemed firearm retailers as an “essential service.”
There have been over 345 million background check requests since records were kept starting November 1998.
Reading the Data.
Keep in mind that these background check numbers do not necessarily represent the number of firearms actually sold. A single background check can include multiple purchases at the same time by the same person at the same location. The background data also includes those who attempted a firearm purchase but no delivery of a firearm was made.
This would be due to those who initiated the legal purchase of a firearm, and they either changed their mind, or had something in their background that prohibited them from purchasing a firearm.
Canada BANS All AR-15 Style Guns – Owners Risk Being Criminals.
Canada, whose citizens do not have any Constitutional rights for owing firearms for home self-defense, or any other reason, just got hit with a total ban on so-called “assault-style” guns.
This came after a recent mass shooting in Canada that killed 22 people. The shooter used an AR-15, incorrectly called “assault weapons” and “weapons of war” by many in the media. The shooter however also used a hand gun during the mass shooting.
Hand guns have not been banned in Canada, but the new law creates a provision for local municipalities to do just that. The Canadian shooter obtained all his firearms illegally.
All Canadian citizens who do not turn in their newly banned weapons, even if purchased legally in the past, will be deemed as criminal felons if they don’t properly dispose of, turn over to the government, or otherwise get rid of their banned guns.
Such retroactive action would be unlawful in the U.S. under Ex Post Facto – passing a law that something was once lawful, then made illegal and forces one to comply with the revised law. Ex Post Facto is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution under Article 1, Sections 9 and 10. Case law: See Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. 386 (1798) and Beazell v. Ohio, 269 U.S. 167 (1925).
Interestingly, before this new Canada gun control law went into effect, Canadians did exactly what millions of Americans do: They went out and stocked up. As a result, gun and ammo sales also soared in Canada during March due to Coronavirus and new gun control measures.
Gun Restrictions/ Gun Bans Tend to Lead to More Crime & Homicides.
Typically what we see in countries such as Mexico and Venezuela that moved to total gun bans, was more crime and homicide. This is because criminals are the ones who never turn in their guns. Criminals know that an unarmed population is not a risk for them. Criminals only need to worry about police as opposed to an armed civilian population.
Gun control laws only impact law-abiding citizens who then become criminal’s new victims. In Canada, illegal firearms are used in 70-90% of all crimes.
In the USA, Chicago has one of the most restrictive gun purchase and regulatory requirements, yet it has the highest murder rate anywhere in the USA.
In fact we previously reported in 2015 that states with high gun regulations and restrictions have the highest murder rates, compared to states with lower gun regulations and restrictions.
As for the recent U.S. gun and ammo purchasing surge, it seems very typical. We have found over the years that Americans tend to buy more firearms and ammo during periods of major economic uncertainty, after any mass shooting; or anytime major politicians talk about restricting or banning types of firearms in general.
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