By Paul Lathrop | Contributing editor
Due to continued uncertainty Americans continued to buy any available guns and ammunition as soon as it hit shelves last week.
Early last week the National Shooting Sports Foundation released October adjusted NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) numbers showing that 1,769,553 background checks were processed. That number was an all-time monthly record and was an increase of 60.1% year to year from 2019. October also cemented 2020 as a record in NICS checks with 2 months of the year still to go.
NICS checks are generally regarded as a close track to the number of firearms sold. While multiple firearms can be purchased with a single check, not all checks result in a sale.
Fox News reports that on election day ammo continued to flu off store shelves and sites one store in Indiana sold 80,000 rounds of 9mm in less than half an hour Tuesday morning.
In Sioux Falls, SD the shelves remain mostly bare as well the Argus Leaderreports that it can be hard to find ammo of any variety in the city. That story quotes Gary’s Gun Shop Assistant manager Nick Meyer. “Firearms and ammunition and the Second Amendment are all hot topics for election times, and it always spurs a little bit of a spree.” He continues “Usually, an election year has more of an effect on our inventory, but not this much.”
Mike Piwowarski who is the co-owner of Always Armed in Orlando Florida told The Gun Mag, “About a week leading up to the election things came to a standstill. It seems like everyone is holding their breath.”
Piwowarski told us that ammo continues to be in short supply as do guns of certain varieties. “AR type sales are steady to unchanged. The interest is in Self-Defense handguns and shotguns, if I had tens of thousands of those I would be a millionaire.”
Piwowarski said that one interesting thing that is happening is that people who bought their first gun in the past 9 months are starting to come in for their second or third gun.
A search Sunday morning on the website www.Ammoseek.com shows 9 mm ammo still available at several online retailers with prices ranging from 50 cents per round to 95 cents per round. .45 ACP was available starting at 70 cents per round and a search for .223 ammo also showed several sites that had ammunition available starting at 55 cents a round up to well over a dollar a round.
