Massachusetts is not known for being the gun mecca. It is well known that the state has a firm stance against the 2nd Amendment. This is why the recent boom in gun sales should come as a surprise.
Over the past two years, Massachusetts has seen a massive increase in gun sales. Analysis from WBUR found that arms dealers in the state nearly sold 276,000 firearms between 2020 and 2021.
Interestingly, a majority of these sales are with handguns.
WBUR found that 64% of the sales in this period were for handguns, while 23% were for rifles. The remaining sales mainly were for shotguns and a few other categories.
As reported in WBUR:
Toby Leary, owner of Cape Gun Works in Hyannis, called 2020 and 2021 “banner, landmark years.”
“We tripled sales in 2020 from 2019,” at his gun shop and shooting range, he said, and 2021 stayed nearly as high.
The state’s numbers mirror a national trend: After a dip during the Trump presidency, Americans have been stocking up on firearms in large volumes.
Leary said a lot of his customers during the pandemic were first-time buyers. Many “haven’t fully grasped the idea of wanting to own a firearm for defensive purposes, but something brought them here,” Leary said. “They feel like they’ve been spurred to do it based on what they see, or their own personal feelings about the world.”
