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Gun supply struggles to keep up with demand
FOX 26 Reporter Greg Groogan speaks with gun store owners about the influx of customers looking to buy guns.
HOUSTON - Gordon Taylor has been in the business of guns and ammo for decades and says he’s never seen anything that compares to the extreme demand he and other dealers are contending with.
“Gun sales are at an all-time high. They are at an all-time high, everywhere,“ said Taylor.
And it’s been that way for month-after-pandemic-stricken-month - a massive 130 percent increase in year-over-year firearms sales triggered, in part, by social unrest and images of violent protest.
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The same crushing demand applying to ammunition as well.
“Fear. It’s fear of the unknown. They are buying it. They don’t know what they are going to do with it, but they are buying it so they have it,” said Taylor.
Fueling the explosion of demand are folks who’ve never owned a firearm before, by one estimate more than 5 million nationwide.
“Most of what we are selling is to first-time buyers,” said Taylor.
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Breitbart correspondent and Fox 26 contributor Bob Price has been in the firearm maintenance product business for nearly two decades.
“Now you are seeing what I would call almost Covid-19 panic buying of ammunition,” said Price.
Price believes shortages will persist because manufacturers have no way of knowing when the unprecedented buying spree will level off.
“They ramped up before in the past, they get production up and then all of a sudden the bottom falls out of the market and they are stuck with a lot of inventory on the shelves,” said Price.
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In the meantime, the guys at Black Gold Guns & Ammo say they’ll deliver what they can when they can and try their best to teach all willing to learn safe practices in the process.
“Everybody is getting ready for something, but I don’t think they know what they are getting ready for,” said Taylor.