West Kentucky Star spoke with Range Safety Officer Nicole Cressler, at Range America. Cressler says they have definitely seen an increase in gun sales, with most of those purchases coming from people who have never owned a firearm before.
Cressler says the fear of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was driving the sales.
"It just has to do with people being scared." Cressler continued, "You know, if people are that worried about getting toilet paper, maybe they are feeling they're going to need to protect their home in the future, should things get worse."
According to Cressler, they have seen an increased interest in concealed carry classes as well, although the classes have currently been suspended due to the restrictions put in place by Governor Andy Beshear.
She said, "We hope to be able to resume those again just as soon as possible, because there is absolutely a need."
With the increase in firearm sales, Cressler says there has been an increase in delays with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
"They are delaying a lot of people, I would say nine out of ten people are getting delayed. They're just overwhelmed."
Benji Stringer, a manager at Kentucky Lake Outdoors, says they have experienced an increase in sales as well, most of which were either handguns or AR-15s.
"They are afraid that they're going to be cooped up somewhere and they're not going to be able to get out to buy it anywhere." Stringer continued, "Back in 2009 the same thing happened, people panic. It's a reoccurring thing in this industry."
He says at times they have had to limit the amount of ammunition they have sold each person due to how much they were going through.
Stringer said, "We do have to limit the amount you can buy when we start getting short on ammo. We need to have ammo to sell with our handguns."
You can learn more about Range America and Kentucky Lake Outdoors at the links below.
On the Net:
Kentucky Lake OutdoorsRange America
