Empty Shelves: Ammunition Sales Surge 139%

National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) indicates that ammunition sales were up 139 percent in the first six months 2020 as compared to sales during the first six months of 2019.

NSSF president and CEO Joe Bartozzi spoke at the 2020 Gun Rights Policy Conference over the weekend where he delivered the news on the surge in ammunition sales. He also noted that gun sales were 95 percent higher in the first six months of 2020 than they were during the same time period in 2019.

Ammo Sales SURGE 139%

That's a lot of freedom seeds.🇺🇸

— NRA (@NRA) September 21, 2020

Bartozzi noted there were nearly five million first-time gun buyers in the first part of the year. He explained that “of all firearms sold to first-time gun buyers, 40 percent were sold to women and personal protection was by far the main purchase driver.”

He suggested there are a few driving factors behind the current surge in gun and ammo sales — one of the key ones being the anti-gun rhetoric of Joe Biden. He suggested Biden looks at gun makers as “the enemy” and recounted Biden’s vow “to bring them down.” He observed that the talk of “mandatory buybacks” of certain firearms is a driving force as well.

Bartozzi also listed the fear arising from a “scarcity of goods and services” caused by the pandemic and the fear “concerning a lack of police involvement and protection” as driving forces behind the surge in gun and ammo sales.

On February 24, 2020, Breitbart News reported that Biden referenced gun manufacturers during a speech in South Carolina, and he said, “I’m going to take you down.”

When Biden announced Kamala Harris as his running mate, Breitbart News reported that Biden and Harris both support extreme gun controls, among which is an “assault weapon” ban and government-mandated buybacks of certain firearms.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.