Coronavirus led people to hoard toilet paper. Here’s what it’s done to gun, ammo sales
Owner Matt Perry noticed sales of guns and ammunition increasing at Buckhorn Gun & Pawn about about a week ago.
Just as Boise area residents have emptied store shelves of toilet paper, disinfectant wipes and even eggs and dried pasta because of concerns over the coronavirus, some have also stocked up on firearms and ammo.
Sales at Perry’s store on West Ustick Road have doubled over what’s normal for this time of year. Much of the sales are for ammunition, but gun sales are up, too.
“The two items that people buy are personal defense firearms, which would be smaller revolvers and smaller semi-automatic pistols,” Perry said Thursday. “One thing we sold out of (Wednesday) was every home defense shotgun that we had in the building, that little short shotgun for personal defense.”
Perry has seen surges like this before. After the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut left 20 children and six adults dead, Buckhorn sold two years’ worth of guns and ammo in the following three months.
Those sales were fueled by fears Congress would enact gun regulations in response to the shootings.
Perry’s sales also surged before Y2K, a feared computer and network outage that was expected to cause widespread havoc as 1999 turned into 2000 but did not. They surged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the October 2017 shootings into a Las Vegas outdoor concert crowd that killed 58 people and injured 413.
‘Not panic, just preparing’
“I’m not seeing panic necessarily, just people preparing,” Perry said by phone. “I think people are reaching out to try to have a little something on hand. I don’t care if it’s toilet paper or firearms or guns or ammunition or food or water.”
Although he profits from each sale, Perry said he doesn’t enjoy sales surges. It’s stressful for him and his employees, it’s hard to keep inventory up, and it’s tiring.
“I hope this rush on food, rush on toilet paper, rush on ammunition does not last, because it’s not a fun way to do business,” he said. “I would rather do business on an even keel, where at the end of the month, you can be profitable and keep your employees.”
Independence Indoor Shooting sells out of 9mm guns
Sales have also doubled at Independence Indoor Shooting in Meridian, general manager Ryan Later said by phone. He said the shooting range, which also has a sales shop, has sold a “significant amount of ammunition” as well as guns.
“People come in looking for defensive-style products, things they can use to protect themselves or their friends or their family,” Later said.
The store has sold out of 9mm guns, which are typically in stock. he said.
“We usually have pallets of those here,” Later said.
Sportsman’s Warehouse limits shoppers to 50 at a time
The Associated Press reported earlier this week that some shelves holding handgun ammunition were nearly wiped out at Sportsman’s Warehouse in Meridian. The store posted signs limiting customers to two handguns per person per day and one AR- or AK-platform rifles each day. It also placed limits on ammunition.
The company’s website on Thursday said Sportsman’s Warehouse was limiting the number of people in its stores to 50 at a time to ensure social distancing. A store manager referred a reporter to the company’s corporate office in Midvale, Utah, but a representative there did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
