The number of gun background checks hit an all-time high in March as panicked shoppers rushed to buy firearms during the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reports. The FBI performed an estimated 2.375 million background checks for gun sales, the record for a single month since the modern background check system was instituted in 1998, found analysis by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry trade group. Surges in gun sales driven by panic have become a regular enough occurrence that industry executives have given the phenomenon a name: “fear-based buying.” The all-time high for background checks in a single month had been 2.237 million in December 2012, when President Obama called for tighter restrictions on guns after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
The nationwide shutdowns have prompted a battle over whether gun stores should be considered essential businesses that are allowed to stay open. After lobbying by gun industry groups, the federal government urged states to let them stay open. Most states have followed that guidance. Faced with budget pressures and an invigorated gun control movement, the National Rifle Association has found a new cause, fighting to keep gun stores open, reports the New York Times. On Thursday, the group sued the State of New York over its decision to include gun retailers among the many businesses that have been forced to close during the crisis. The NRA already had filed two suits against California, where the governor had left the decision to counties. “There isn’t a single person who has ever used a gun in self-defense who would consider it nonessential,” said NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre.