猫咪社区

The Saturday Alex Corn decided to open the Verona Gun Safe early. He鈥檚 owned the Verona, Pennsylvania, gun shop on the outskirts of Pittsburgh since 2011.

Pennsylvania gun stores operate by appointment only, the result of order closing all businesses not defined as 鈥渓ife-sustaining,鈥� meant to help slow the spread of COVID-19. As the federal relief funds filtered into bank accounts, Corn鈥檚 calendar of 30-minute appointments filled up, even though the store鈥檚 inventory has been depleted by six weeks of brisk sales.

As society abruptly transformed entirely in the face of the novel coronavirus pandemic and a partial societal shutdown meant to contain it, thousands of Americans responded by buying a gun. processed 3.7 million checks in March, an increase from 2.6 million checks in March 2019. Over the past five years, the NICB, a measure of how many people tried to buy a gun, has normally processed about 2 million background checks a month.

Gun store owners say the influx is coming from first-time firearm buyers, fearful that society could collapse into theft and marauding, as food and supplies run scarce, poverty deepens, and police are rendered ineffective. Buyers are still filing into gun stores, which remain open in most Appalachian states, but first-timers don鈥檛 always have access to the ranges, gun clubs and classes to learn about their new lethal weapons. Some resort to tutorials on YouTube.

Gun sales have historically been affected by current events. The number of background checks budged upward in early 2013, after the Sandy Hook school shooting stirred momentum for gun control, reaching 2.5 million checks that January.

Graphic by Nick Keppler and David Smith/100 Days in Appalachia.

Corn, whose store is about 20 miles up the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, says this sales surge is different. 鈥淭hose were our usual customers,鈥� he recalls. They wanted guns that might be banned in the near future. 鈥淣ow, it鈥檚 first-time buyers looking for home protection.鈥�

After a month of catering to this demand, a wall-length display at his store is mostly empty space. It usually contains more than 100 handguns in stairlike tiers, but now holds just 15 and some dust. Above them, in the rifle display, stand a few high-priced models and plenty of hunting guns with scopes. The modest-priced shotguns best for shooting an intruder have been snapped up. Corn is relieved his suppliers came through with boxes of 9 mm bullets, the most common caliber. He sold out in March.

鈥淚 lost out on some $500 gun sales because I didn鈥檛 have a $20 box of ammo,鈥� he says.

As the rest of Verona鈥檚 main street is shuttered, Eric Cartwright comes into the Verona Gun Safe hoping to buy a Kel-Tec SUB-2000 semi-automatic rifle. It would be his first gun.

鈥淭here鈥檚 multiple reasons I want it,鈥� says Cartwright, 34. 鈥淩ight now, I want to protect my family in case of martial law. I don鈥檛 want to leave my safety up to the government.鈥� Cartwright wears a hoodie adorned with the logo of his heating and cooling business. He has vehicles and equipment that would be tempting targets if poverty drives people to theft, he says.

However, three DUIs for Cartwright. Corn spends many of his work hours shepherding customers through the background check process, the reflection of a computer screen glowing in his thick eyeglasses. He advises Cartwright not to fill in the application; some questions about crimes can read like legalese and answering them incorrectly can halt the process (or even lead to criminal prosecution).

Cartwright, wearing a neatly trimmed beard and ponytail and carrying a vape pen, seems frustrated. His last DUI was 2009. 鈥淚鈥檝e turned my life around,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 shouldn鈥檛 have to give up my Second Amendment rights.鈥�

Corn moves on to his next appointment, and Cartwright leaves with the business card of a local gun rights attorney. Many others are leaving gun shops with their first piece.

The Psychological Factor

Lanae Lumsden and her husband, Gregory Winborne, of Avalon, Pennsylvania, another Pittsburgh suburb, drove to a sporting goods superstore in March and purchased a 20-gauge shotgun for $275 and a 9 mm handgun for $300. 

鈥淲e had been thinking about it for a while,鈥� says Lumsden, 40. The couple considered buying firearms in 2018 after at a bar in their town.

鈥淲e are Black and live in the suburbs,鈥� Lumsden says. 鈥淲e felt more uncomfortable with [the coronavirus] happening. I felt like if something did happen, it would happen to us first.鈥�

Winborne鈥檚 mother, a corrections officer, introduced him to guns. He and his wife shoot regularly with friends, but these are their first firearm purchases. The shotgun will stay at home, and they intend to apply for concealed carry permits for the handgun. Right now, both sit in a bedroom drawer.

鈥淲e haven鈥檛 been able to shoot them,鈥� says Winborne, 41. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 even go to the range.鈥�

, gun ranges on state lands are closed, but ranges that are in private clubs are open at the discretion of their owners. Even if they could find a club, they try to stay at their house, mostly, working from home and caring for four kids, ages 5 to 18. But the guns are a comfort, Winborne says, because he envisions a worst-case scenario is a 鈥渮ombie apocalypse, when people are just trying to take things for themselves.鈥�

David Yamane, a professor of sociology at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who studies gun culture, says first-time buyers are often purchasing some peace of mind, because of a personal trauma or fears about their neighborhoods or society. 鈥淚 think the intended purpose of the purchase is physical security, and they are also attempting to buy some psychological security,鈥� he says.

While people are flooded with anxiety right now鈥攐ver their health, their jobs, their savings鈥攖he gun allows them to put down the worry they鈥檒l be defenseless against desperate hordes.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like the toilet paper,鈥� says Yamane, a commodity shoppers stockpiled in March. 鈥淚f they can鈥檛 have anything else under control, they know they have that one thing under control.鈥�

These anxieties might be exaggerated. amid the coronavirus lockdowns, as empty streets leave fewer opportunities for muggings and crimes of opportunity. The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police  in the first three months of 2020, compared to 2019. Still, some people still fret that a criminal will come to strong-arm them.

鈥淧eople have supplies, but unless they can defend them, they are only storing them for the next-most aggressive guy in their neighborhood,鈥� says Josh Rowe, co-owner of Allegheny Arms and Gun Works, in Pittsburgh鈥檚 southern suburbs. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we鈥檝e heard.鈥�

His store has also seen an uptick in sales from first-time buyers. They come in with nightmare predictions: Police forces will be neutered as their ranks are depleted because of officers sick with the virus, or police will cease patrolling to avoid catching it. Former inmates will flood out, as authorities decrease populations in jails and prisons, and they will fall into gleeful recidivism. Opioid addicts will descend into desperation and break into homes to steal something to sell to get a fix.

鈥淚t鈥檚 first-time buyers, and they realize they need to take responsibility for me and mine,鈥� says Rowe. 鈥淭hese are not 鈥榞un nuts.鈥� That鈥檚 not who we are seeing. It鈥檚 a good cross section of people.鈥�

First-Time Buyers and the Elusive 9 Mm

Chuck Bodner, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, waited eight hours in line outside a gun store called The Bunker that was only accepting two customers at a time because of COVID-19 precautions. After a day spent, his background check stalled. Two days later, a shop employee called to say he was clear. He returned and purchased a 9 mm pistol that now sits in a living room drawer, its clip loaded but out.

鈥淭his coronavirus thing has spurred anxiety for me,鈥� says Bodner, a 34-year-old self-described 鈥渓eftist鈥� who works in digital marketing, 鈥渇ear of the unknown. What if this goes on for months?鈥�

鈥淚 grew up poor, and I am aware of how desperate poverty makes people,鈥� he adds.

Bodner says he has shot guns with friends and 鈥渋sn鈥檛 freaked out by them,鈥� but he doesn鈥檛 know quite how to handle his new weapon. 鈥淚 would like to get proper training. I would like to get a concealed carry [permit]. I would like to get more practice at a range. I practice the pistol grip. I watch a lot of YouTube videos.鈥�

Rowe, co-owner of Allegheny Arms and Gun Works, says that he tries to guide first-timers to classes, but many are not meeting, canceled like everything else because of the coronavirus.

With the store swamped in March and limited to 30-minute appointments in April, he hasn鈥檛 been able to have as much time as he鈥檇 like to speak to first-time buyers about instructions, safe storage, and buying the gun most sensible to their needs and abilities.  

鈥淎t the end of the day, gun stores are in business to sell guns, but I want to get the correct gun to customers,鈥� says Rowe. He added that he鈥檚 turned away people who don鈥檛 seem to have thought through safety considerations.

Austin B., a recent first-time gun buyer in Louisville, Kentucky, is also struggling with the new, ever-shifting societal paradigm.

In March, the 40-year-old husband and father bought a M&P Shield 2.0 pistol, his first gun, because of fears that the coronavirus could lead to increased crime. 鈥淲e live in a lower-income neighborhood that has a bit of a drug problem,鈥� he says. 鈥淲ith incomes being suppressed, I鈥檇 hate for there to be a rise in burglaries.鈥�

He asked to use only his last initial for this story because he fears someone may him (make false reports of a dangerous armed person to elicit a heavy police response) because of his gun ownership. 

鈥淚鈥檓 actually pretty embarrassed about how little research I did on the subject,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think I basically Googled 鈥榬eddit good pistol for conceal carry鈥� the night before I bought it, and it was a popular reply.鈥� Because Kentucky, he鈥檚 been wearing it to work, trying out different holsters to see which 鈥渇eels鈥� right.

But it鈥檚 not loaded. He can鈥檛 find 9 mm bullets. Kentucky is that has not seen an increase in background checks related to gun sales amid COVID-19, possibly because the state already had a high gun ownership rate. But people have been snatching up bullets, Austin has found, which means he can鈥檛 go to a range to train with it. 

鈥淚 think I鈥檓 going out to some land my cousin owns this weekend to put some rounds through it,鈥� he says. He hopes his cousin has some 9 mms to spare.

This article was originally published by . It has been published here with permission.