Village Pawn & Gun Shop sells, buys and trades guns, ammo, gold and jewerly. The shop is experiencing long lines out the door as more and more customers are coming in to purchase guns. 
                                 Contributed Photo

Village Pawn & Gun Shop sells, buys and trades guns, ammo, gold and jewerly. The shop is experiencing long lines out the door as more and more customers are coming in to purchase guns.

Contributed Photo

<p>Since the pandemic struck, a local Wadesboro pawn and gun shop is seeing record numbers of customers come in to buy guns and ammo.</p>
                                 <p>Contributed Photo</p>

Since the pandemic struck, a local Wadesboro pawn and gun shop is seeing record numbers of customers come in to buy guns and ammo.

Contributed Photo

WADESBORO — Guns, guns and more guns line the walls and pile up in glass cases at one local gun shop in Wadesboro. But what you seen upon entering is surprisingly less than half of the store’s normal inventory due to the national increase of gun sales.

Co-owner of Village Pawn & Gun Shop Dorothy Griffin cannot keep guns on the shelf for long due to the increase of buyers since March.

Griffin attributed the sudden demand for guns and ammo to people’s feeling of increased vulnerability in recent months.

Living in the country-side of Anson County does not always mean police can be at your place in a few minutes, according to Griffin. She praises the police for being there to serve and protect, but she also knows it is not always practical for officers to get through the county before something goes wrong.

“Then there is always a fear that a different administration is going to change the gun laws,” Griffin said.

She remembers seeing an increase of gun sales when President Barack Obama was elected into office, but she said there has never been an ammo shortage since the store opened in 1985. The pandemic has caused an ammo shortage as manufactures were not working during lockdowns. These production facilities were not considered “essential.”

According to the Small Arms Analytics and Forecasting (SAAF), a research consultancy focusing on the business and economy of the global arms and ammunition markets, the rest of country is seeing an increase in unit sales.

“I say ‘unit sales’ so as not to confuse this with revenue increases, which can happen with the same number of units sold at higher prices,” Chief Economist for SAAF Jurgen Brauer said.

The SAAF estimates about 1.9 million U.S. firearms unit sales in the month of October, a 65% increase from the same month one year earlier. These estimates are based on raw data from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

“Our inventory is less than half of what it used to be because we can’t replace them,” Griffin said. “Guns are starting to come in, but we are selling them as soon as they come in. We haven’t been able to build our inventory yet.”

The same goes for ammunition.

Brauer said COVID-19-related fears first sparked the demand of guns and ammo, followed by three more incidents, prolonging the demand.

The killing of George Floyd followed by the racial unrest and protests around the country throughout June and July kept gun and ammunition sales soring. Then the election brought in fear of a Democratic president that would tighten gun laws. And finally, hunting season rolling around has kept the demand high.

Right here in Anson County, the sheriff’s department reported about 146% increase in purchase permits between March and mid-November this year comparted to the same period last year. Comparing the same time periods, there is a 63.7% increase in concealed carry permits, according to the sheriff’s department.

Lines formed out the door and around the building when the demand first struck. Griffin’s son-in-law and business partner Jonathan Baggett said many of the buyers coming into the store are first-time buyers. There is even a quick turn-around of first-time buyers coming back to purchase again.

The store sells anywhere between 20 to 50 guns a day during these heightened sales months, according to Griffin.

“Business is booming because of all these new people,” Griffin said. “In the career of our business, this is the best gun sales and ammo sales ever for us, which is saying a lot.”

Griffin does not expect business to go back to normal. After eight months of continuous demands, the store is having trouble keeping guns and ammunition in stock and there is no finish line of when this demand will level out.

“We usually carry about 3,000 guns and we are probably down to about 1,200 and we hardly ever go down,” Griffin said. “I’m most worried about running out of ammo. Guns are useless without ammo.”

But of course, no one knows for sure when this demand will die down. Brauer predicts it will “taper off in 2021 once we see what happens with COVID-19 and the re-run of the Senatorial elections in Georgia, which will determine whether or not the Democratic Party also wins the U.S. Senate.”