LA Times Editorial Board: Surge in Gun Sales Is ‘Madness’

The Los Angeles Times editorial board suggests the current surge in gun sales is “madness.”

It delivered this observation after describing month after month of record breaking firearm background checks during coronavirus shutdowns.

They noted:

Since the start of the pandemic, Americans are buying more guns. The FBI says it conducted a record 3.7 million background checks for would-be gun buyers, a loose proxy for firearm sales, in March as lockdown orders spread across the nation. In April the checks dropped to 2.9 million but rebounded to 3.1 million in May. The monthly average for 2019 — itself a record year for background checks — was 2.4 million. So even as we get fresh studies connecting possession of firearms with increased risk of gun violence, accidental shootings (usually by children) and suicides, we are adding more firearms to the nation’s already numbingly large privately owned arsenal of some 300 million guns (no reliable count is available) owned by about a third of the population.

The board added, “This is madness.”

The board did not mention that in record-setting months like April 2020, the sales of handguns dominated the sales of all other firearms.

Breitbart News reported Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting’s chief economist Jurgen Brauer noted “the ratio of handguns to long-gun sold…[set] a new record of 1.94” in April. That ratio “[broke] the previous high of 1.84 set just one month ago.”

Those handgun sales are indicate of self-defense purchases.

But the LA Times board lauded gun control and praised this week’s announcement that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) would not hear 10 different challenges to gun control laws around the country.

On June 15, 2020, SCOTUS announced it would not hear the challenges to gun control and Breitbart News reported that Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, warning that the court “looks the other way” in cases revolving around the Second Amendment.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange