Buffalo, N.Y. (WIVB)– Director of Public Affairs at the National Shooting and Sports Foundation Mark Oliva said gun sales in 2020 surpassed previous records.
“We had 21 million background checks for a sale of a firearm that is by far the strongest year we have ever had on record. The previous record before 2020 was 15.7 million background checks for the sale of a firearm,” Oliva said.
Oliva noted that in 2020 there were 8.4 million gun purchases from first-time buyers. Moreover, 40% of overall gun sales were from women, and gun purchases by African American’s spiked by 58%.
“It really is a tectonic shift, when we look at whose the gun owner this year and you’ll see that today’s gun buyer looks a whole lot less like me, a middle-aged white guy and more like the rest of America,” Oliva said.