Some 110,000 Californians bought firearms during the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, with fear of “lawlessness” as the top reason for their purchases, a new study reveals.
The study, conducted by the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California–Davis, estimated that 110,000 Californians bought at least one gun from March through July, including 47,000 who purchased firearms for the first time. The estimate is consistent with the data of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which shows roughly 557,000 individuals underwent a firearm background check in California, compared with 465,000 during the same period in 2019.
