Ammunition and firearms have joined toilet paper and disinfectant in the category of items that are flying off the shelves nearly faster than suppliers can stock them.
Sales of guns and ammo have been rising since the end of February, correlating with the integration of the word “coronavirus” into the average American’s vocabulary. But as restrictions have tightened, local gun sellers say they’ve seen the numbers of sales go through the roof.
Dana Ryll, owner of Old Glory Guns and Ammo in Greenville, said the real rush started for him on March 12, on the cusp of major shutdowns of schools and restaurants and mandates against large public gatherings.
“They are extreme,” Ryll said, of his current sales number. “Higher than we’ve ever seen. Any two days we’re doing a week’s worth of business. Sometimes a week’s worth in any one day. It’s considerably higher.”
The store has seen a rise in first-time gun buyers too.
It’s clear the virus is a contributing factor to the rush, Ryll said, and customers have made jokes about having to protect their toilet paper supply. And Ryll said he knows it is not just his store seeing a rush. Supply lines have slowed down as they’ve been clogged with additional requests – for firearms, yes, but mostly for ammunition.
“This has been a shock to the system. Everyone is seeing the same kind of demand,” Ryll said.
Ken Caisse, owner of Firearms Etc. in Temple, said he hadn’t been selling recently, due to a lack of demand. But now he’s been getting calls from potential buyers, most of them looking for ammunition supplies.
“It’s been very unusual compared to the last year, because no one was buying anything,” Caisse said.
It’s been a struggle to keep ammunition in stock, particularly bulk ammunition, which has been in high demand, Ryll said. He and his staff even discussed the idea of closing for a day, just to let inventory come in and give staff time to re-stock the shelves. Ultimately, Ryll said, he couldn’t justify it, with such high uncertainty about what may come in the future, such as a more restrictive quarantine or orders to close all non-essential businesses.
“We need to glean what we can right now,” Ryll said.
It’s not unusual for political or other news to drive gun sales. Ryll has seen spikes during Democratic presidencies, and when bills proposing tighter gun limitations are going through the legislature. But nothing to this extent, he said. Other past health scares, such as H1N1 or SARS never caused this kind of run on ammunition, he said, though no health crisis in recent memory has caused the kind of disruption to the normal day-to-day business as COVID-19 has.
The story is the same across the nation. Ammo.com, an online ammunition retailer, has reported an increase in bullet sales all across the country, with some states increasing bullet purchases by 1,000 percent or more, particularly in states in or around known COVID-19 cases. The growth has been accelerating since March 10, when the amount of presumptive coronavirus cases in the United States jumped to 1,000. The website is reporting that New Hampshire retail sales are up 224 percent.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.