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  • The US increases the sale of arms in the United States due to the fear of the coronavirus

Images of people lining up to buy guns in the United States who went viral on social media a few weeks ago have translated into a record-breaking sales record. March has closed as the second busiest month in the country's history in that chapter, according to The New York Times , just behind January 2013 , just after the re-election of Barack Obama and the shooting at Sandy Hook , the Connecticut school where 26 people died, 20 of them children between 6 and 7 years old.

In a country with an undeniable devotion to weapons and a tendency to collective paranoia, not only has toilet paper and bean cans been blown off the shelves by the coronavirus pandemic. Fear of an even greater catastrophe from this new pathogen has led many to arm themselves well and accumulate ammunition .

The data on which the statistic is based comes from the background check that the FBI processes with each arms sale, although many of the country's states do not require those security processes by law. Anyone can buy a gun as long as they are of legal age. By that count, 1.9 million guns were sold in the US in March , 100,000 fewer than the previous record in January 2013.

The other two dates in which there was also a significant increase in the consumption of weapons and ammunition was after the beginning of Obama's first term , in January 2009 (1.1 million weapons sold) and after the attacks of September 11 ( 754,000).

Fear of the coronavirus has almost reached the top of the list. The main fear is that the spread of the disease will unleash chaos and looting in various parts of the country. Given the possibility, the logic of many is to arm themselves to the teeth.

"We have had an 800% increase in sales," David Stone, owner of a gun store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, told AFP. "I'm about to run out of product." Stone says that he himself does not understand this sudden phenomenon, even if it is benefiting him financially. "I think it is unreasonable . "

It has also helped that President Donald Trump has kept gun shops on his list of essential businesses that have been able to continue to operate during decreed lockdowns to prevent further contagion. Trump is one of the great advocates of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution who speaks of the right to "possess and bear arms."

According to data from the Small Arms Survey portal, there are 393 million firearms in the US, most unregistered, and an average of 120 weapons for every 100 people. In Spain, it is 7.5 per 100 inhabitants

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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