Newly-released FBI statistics show that there were more background checks completed last month for firearm purchases than any previous July for which records exist.
“In July 2020, the FBI conducted more than 3.6 million firearm background checks, making it the third highest month on record for checks since the bureau began keeping statistics in 1998, according to new data released on Monday by the agency,” CNN reported. “By comparison, the bureau conducted just over 2 million checks in July 2019.”
The two months that had the highest number of background checks completed both happened this year with 3.74 million background checks being processed in March, when the pandemic started to impact life in the U.S., and 3.91 million in June, when violent riots and looting broke out across the U.S. in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Some Democrats in cities across the country have defunded police departments, or called for defunding police departments, in the aftermath of Floyd’s death and some officials have referred to the police as a “cancer.”
Fox News reported that there have been 2.5 million first-time gun buyers so far in 2020 while The Free Beacon noted that there has been “record-setting growth in new gun ownership” in the black community. The 2.5 million number reported on by Fox News is likely low given the fact that the statistic came out at the start of June and June and July ended up finishing as the #1 and #3 months, respectively, for the most background checks processed for firearm sales.
The record number of gun sales this year comes as violent riots have plagued Democrat-controlled cities and images and videos of the violence have often gone viral on social media. Some of the cities that have been hit hard by the violent riots and looting include Portland, Minneapolis, New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, and others.
“Millions of Americans are discovering how important it is to have the right of self-defense amid the push to defund the police,” Fox News contributor Joey Jones said on Tuesday. “I’ve been to my local gun store. A good friend of mine, an Army Ranger, owns it and they’re always busy and there is nothing on the shelves. He has over a half a million dollars in inventory on backorder waiting to come in so he can sell it.”
The most recognizable instance of someone using a firearm to protect themselves during the riots happened in St. Louis when leftist activists stormed on to a private street and reportedly threatened Mark and Patricia McCloskey.
“The only thing that stopped the crowd from approaching the house was when I had that rifle and I was holding it,” Mark McCloskey said during an interview following the incident. “That was the only thing that stemmed the tide.”
McCloskey added, “There’s mayhem in the city every night, you never hear about it, there will be dozens of shootings, multiple deaths, no one seems to care about those black lives, but, you know, it’s when there [is] political capital to be made from somebody’s death, that death matters, no other life matters that I can see.”