Triangle’s ‘record-shattering’ gun and ammo sales are fueled by more than just politics
On a rainy Monday morning, 13 men stood in line outside Perry’s Gun Shop in downtown Wendell, queued up 20 minutes before the store opened. While they waited in the drizzle, they swapped stories about the high price of ammunition and long delays for concealed weapon permits.
Hannah Perry Hopkins greets them every day when she opens the family business. Crowds by the dozen have stretched down Pine Street since last February, eager for pistols, rifles — even gun safes.
Sales at Perry’s have quadrupled, she said. Demand is so heavy that the store puts signs on the shelves alongside the ammunition, asking customers to limit themselves to one box of ammunition per day.
“It’s not record-setting,” she said. “It’s record-shattering. There are companies we deal with that are not even accepting back orders. Why would they?”
Gun sales have soared across the Triangle, fueled by such an intense demand for firearms that Fuquay Gun & Gold in Fuquay-Varina can no longer receive its customary delivery of ammunition by the tractor-trailer load, even though owner Clay Ausley always pays for them with cash. and not credit
A video posted on TikTok shows customers wrapped around his brick store, the parking lot full. It is titled, “Always a line,” and on any day, Ausley expects 30 to 50 people waiting.
Fear, uncertainty, pandemic protest
The surge stems, Ausley said, from a combination of fear and uncertainty, some of it predictable for any election season, but more of it thrown into high gear by the COVID-19 pandemic and months of protests last year in downtown Raleigh streets.
“The word was food was going to be in short supply, gas was going to be in short supply, and we need guns to defend food and gas,” Ausley said. “Then we had unrest in the streets and business owners started buying guns, saying, ‘If the police aren’t going to defend my property, I’m going to defend it.’ ”
In 2020, the Wake County sheriff’s office issued 57,791 pistol permits — a 373% increase over the previous year. The number of permits from last year tops those issued in 2017, 2018 and 2019 — combined.
In the first 20 days of 2021, Wake County citizens requested 5,047 permits, more than three times the number from the same period in 2019.
Another 15,579 people requested concealed-carry permits in 2020, an annual increase of more than 5,000. If someone requested such a permit today, sheriff’s spokesman Eric Curry said Monday, the next available appointment for fingerprinting would be July 14.
The sheriff’s office suspended permit applications in March, a decision borne out of COVID-19 fears and rising protests. But after multiple lawsuits, it agreed in November to resume processing them within 14 days.
In Charlotte, demand is so heavy that the Mecklenburg County sheriff is now processing applications filed in August.
Some hiccups in the gun industry led to shorter supply, Ausley said, coupled with panic over the pandemic and protests.
The Remington Arms Co. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July, just as the FBI was reporting a record-high 3.9 million firearms background checks in June, NPR reported.
Fears in election year, no matter the winner
Both Fuquay and Perry stores said they regularly plan to stock up in an election year, regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican wins. Voters tend to buy heavily, fearing a new administration will change the rules.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed a string of laws restricting firearms in April, which helped fuel demand in bordering states. “We had Virginia people coming here because they couldn’t buy anything,” Ausley said.
But while Ausley said he saw the wave coming, no one could have predicted its size.
Add government stimulus checks providing potential buyers with money, and gun stores can’t keep supplies on hand.
The nation saw 8 million first-time gun buyers in 2020, Ausley said, and he estimates they bought 16 million boxes of ammunition among themselves. With 50 rounds in a box, that translates to 800 million rounds of ammunition just among the new shooters.
If he didn’t already have long and deep relationships with suppliers, his shelves might be empty.
At Perry’s in Wendell, Hopkins said gun dealers are buying stock from her store’s website.
“That’s a full-time job,” she said, “making sure we have stuff to sell.”
The crowd will be again back Tuesday, she is sure, waiting before the doors even open.
This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 2:20 PM.