Since the coronavirus outbreak, gun shops have reported long lines and runs on firearms and ammunition.
Andrea Schry, right, fills out the buyer part of legal forms to buy a handgun as shop worker Missy Morosky fills out the vendors parts after Dukes Sport Shop reopened, Wednesday, March 25, 2020, in New Castle, Pa. under the new conditions specified for gun stores. The store had closed last week when Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf ordered a shut down of non-essential businesses to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton agrees, issuing a legal opinion Friday saying that emergency orders in his state can't restrict gun sales. Any order that excludes gun stores from “essential” businesses that can stay open are in conflict with state law banning limits on gun sales, Paxton said.In recent weeks, firearm sales have skyrocketed.
The federal background check system has been overwhelmed by the massive increase in firearm sales. What might normally take a few minutes is taking much longer, and a backlog on background checks has ballooned to about 80,000, Oliva said. “If you keep it open, there’s the risk of first-time buyers who are largely buying out of fear and panic and untrained,” said Chipman, now senior policy adviser for Giffords, a gun control advocacy group.
In some states that have ordered people to stay home, gun stores were not among the businesses deemed essential and allowed to stay open, like grocery stores.
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