Gun purchases in the state of New York jumped 121 percent in June 2020, compared to the sales in June 2019.
The New York Post reported there were 52,252 background checks performed for people wanting to buy guns in New York. Of those, “31,003 background checks, were for people seeking to buy a rifle.”
Buying a rifle instead of a handgun saves New Yorkers the extra step of getting a handgun permit before making their purchase.
Cliff Pfleger, owner of Long Island Gun Source, said, “When the original COVID scare started in the beginning of March and people thought they might get laid off, at that point we saw a huge surge. We sold out of almost everything we had in the store.”
Pfleger noted that “many first-time gun buyers opt to buy rifles in order to bypass the license needed for handguns.”
“The people who are coming to the store — a lot of them were first-time firearm purchasers, and they obviously did not apply or have a handgun license,” he said.
FBI figures show that more people are killed by hammers and clubs than with rifles of any kind, Breitbart News reported. The figures were for 2017 and they showed that 467 people were killed with “blunt objects (hammers, clubs, etc.),” while 403 were killed with rifles.
Breitbart News also reported that the 2017 crime figures showed 1,591 people were killed with “knives or cutting instruments,” while 403 were killed with “rifles.”
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 directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.