GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Across the nation gun sales are up ahead of the election. At least one local retailer tells NBC5 they’re having trouble keeping shelves stocked.
“The last few months of gun sales here in Oregon have been bananas,” said Ken Hutchison who owns Doc Holliday Guns in Grants Pass.
He says in his 5 years of selling guns he has never seen product fly off the shelf so quickly.
“It’s almost doubled what it’s been in the last 6 months compared to the last four or five years,” said Hutchison.
He says handguns are the most popular right now, but not too far behind are automatic firearms and hunting guns.
“I usually have a wall full of guns 40, 50 guns at any given time. These days I’m happy to have 15 or 20,” said Hutchison.
He says many of the customers are first time buyers.
“People that would have never bought guns before are buying them now,” said Hutchison.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Americans have purchased a record 17 million firearms this year. But why the sudden jump in sales? Hutchinson believes sales are increasing as we close in on the Presidential Election.
“The concern would be if Biden gets elected he’s gonna start putting restrictions on firearms. And so, everybody is trying to buy it now while they can,” said Hutchison.
He also says fear is a driving factor during this difficult year.
“I wish that people were coming in to buy them just because they want them. I feel bad for people that are buying guns because they are afraid,” said Hutchison, “We don’t want people to buy them out of fear. But right now they are buying them out of fear. That’s too bad, I wish it wasn’t like that.”
Doc Holliday Guns also told NBC5 production may have decreased due to COVID-19 restrictions, which it says could also attribute to the difficulty stocking shelves at this time.
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