For the third quarter in a row, the Pennsylvania State Police are reporting a new record in the point-of-sale background checks required before most gun sales, meaning that record interest in firearms sparked by the civil unrest after the George Floyd killing and a contentious election last year has just kept soaring into 2021.
In the first quarter of 2021, the Pennsylvania Instant Check System completed 427,450 background checks. That’s up 40.2 percent from January through March 2020. State Police said previous records for PICS activity were 420,581 background checks, set from October through December of 2020; and 406,151 checks from July through September last year.
Background checks don’t equate exactly to sales; some would-be buyers are barred from buying.
But more importantly, rules exempting private sales of long guns (including rifles, shotguns and semi-automatic military style rifles) are exempt from the requirement. Some national studies suggest more than 20 percent of all legal firearms sales occur outside the background check system.
But they are considered a good barometer of the market, and that means, for now, things are running hot.
The main cause for that may be the results of last year’s election, several dealers reached by PennLive said Tuesday.
“No doubt it’s our new president. He’s the best gun salesman out there,” said John Lehman, explaining that with President Joe Biden – who supports several popular gun control measures – in the White House and the Democratic Party holding thin majorities in both houses of the Congress, many people see gun rights under attack.
“They’ve already made it public,” Lehman said, referring to two bills passed in early March in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Joel Koehler, operator of Eagle Arms in Breinigsville, Lehigh County, agreed that gun politics is a driving force.
“Of course people are concerned. They want their Second Amendment rights not trampled,” Koehler said. “I’ve been in the business 45 years. I’ve seen this happen under every Democratic Administration from Clinton. Obama. They’re our best salesmen.”
With the Democratic Party holding the White House and thin majorities in both the houses of Congress, the chance of tighter gun restrictions being imposed at the federal level is perceived by many gun owners’ rights groups to be greater than it’s been in a more than a decade.
In separate votes that fell largely along party lines, the bills passed by the U.S. House last month would require background checks for all gun buyers, and extend the time the F.B.I. has to vet those flagged by the national instant check system.
The background check measure would extend the required point-of-sale checks to people buying firearms at gun shows, and to people guns. Those categories of sales were never included in the check system, which must come back clean before the buyers can take possession of the weapon.
The second bill would extend the three days given the F.B.I. has to complete a check by an additional week, to 10 days.
Despite being popular with voters, the measures face uncertain futures in the Senate, where Republicans have more enough votes to block the bills unless Democrats decide to roll back the chamber’s filibuster rule, which permits opponents of any measure to keep debate open unless at least 60 senators vote to end discussion and move to a final vote.
Lehman said his customers aren’t waiting to find out. Some of that may speak to the broader cultural wars at play in American society, he thinks.
“I have no doubt it’s politically driven. People are afraid of their rights being taken away, so they’re going to exercise ‘em while they got ‘em. It’s a major conversation with everybody at the gun shows,” said Lehman, 72, whose J&S Arms dealership is based in Jersey Shore, Lycoming County.
“Everywhere you look somebody’s restricting something…. It’s just everything from anti-police to anti-gun to anti-anything.”
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#1. Every dictatorship takeover starts with gun confiscation and laws that prohibit gun ownership.
The Democrat Party is afraid of “We the People.
Why else would the Democrat Party put up razor wire fences and have 25,000 armed soldiers in the Capitol to protect them from the citizens?
The “Socialist Democrat Party State” political officers, Gestapo, Woke and Cancel Culture are just getting started.
You will obey, be loyal and support the “Socialist Democrat Party State” or you will be classified as
“Enemies of the State”.
Scruffy its already too late, look what we have in the big office, the guy holding that office is not right in the head he has alzheimers at the very least. These satan worshipping DEMONcrats are on a full rip to go not only after our right to keep and bear arms but all of our other rights as well. At one point that nasty pislousi even said that the Bill Of Rights was just a list of suggestions till it comes to the 25th then its an absolute. Yeah these demons that are in office have only one thing in mind for this country and that is to subjugate the people, hence the mandate to wear a mask everywhere including in your own home.
Things are going to get a whole lot worse in a very short time.
Have a good week.
ONCE the 2nd goes. SO WILL THE rest of the rights.. The 2nd is WHY those rights exist.
Kd,never never give up not to these Democratic criminals.
The gun and the Bible are the first two things banned by dictators.
If all Democrats disarmed themselves, the United States would be free of 99% of gun violence. Secondly, I think all of the Democrat politicians should not be allowed to have any security, with guns!!!!!!
I.A.W. U.S. Census & FBI (Table 43a) Black males make up about 6% of the U.S. population but commit 53% of all the murders and 55% of all robberies in the U.S… Every year in the U.S. there are ~5,000 African-Americans men, women and children killed and 96% of them were killed by fellow African-Americans.
I don’t think that these people who are doing these killings have any political ties. They only value themselves. 🙁
This wont jive with the CDC that racism is a serious threat to public health.
I wonder. IF WE put out a list of the names of ALL MASS shooters, and what political party they supported/funded/worked for, WHICH PARTY WOuld have the most….
That has been done, ALL OF THE MASS SHOOTERS WERE REGISTERED DEMOCRATS OR LEANING THAT WAY.
or were terrorists that came to America to commit jihad.
How many terrorists have gotten through the wall the Greatest President of the United States of America built? I know there were two yesterday at least.
My dad was a POW of the Japs in WWII and if he were alive today, he would say, *** is going on in our country?
I wonder, if they included the KIDS (those teens) such as at the school shootings, in that.. Would that change in anyway?
Back when they taught history in school, I remember during the holocaust study, one teary eyed girl seeing the photos of human skeletons and bodies sprawled in the gas chamber asked: “But why didn’t the Jews, knowing they had nothing to lose . . resist and fight back?” Back when we had American teachers and not liberal indoctrinators, our teacher responded with: “Because Hitler and the Germans confiscated all private weapons and the Jews had nothing to resist with.” The democrats know what they are doing. Crime is not the issue .. .unless the left considers freedoms and rights and individuality as crimes.
Nasty pislousi said about a week or so ago that gun owners were and are enemies of the state and must be punished for some weird reason. Who knows how or what these satan worshipping DEMONcrats think the only thing they want to do is rule the country like kings or queens or dictators of some sort.
WHICH they do.. YOu can’t be free, you must be a servant to the party.
The democRATS are Communists and want to rule like a dictatorship… the only way that will happen is if they take away Our guns. I am NRA there are Millions of gun owners who will say NO WAY Are You taking my Guns… this if pressured Will cause an all out REVOLUTION till there are No More Communist democRATS. We did it in 1776 We can and will do it again. Rest assured the MILITARY will side with the People and the Oath they took To protect and Serve and Honor the US CONSTITUTION. Don’t Tread on ME ! LOCK AND LOAD Join the NRA… Protect our rights!
Did it ever occur to anyone that Democrats may want a civil war? A civil war will not end well for the American People. If it happens no one wins but our enemies.
Our factories will grind to a halt so we will not be able to replace our supplies. It will be come as you are. What is on hand at the start is all there will be.
Don’t count on help from our so called allies. They will have enough problems of their own. North Korea could invade the south and the Arab Countries could attack Israel and we would be powerless to do anything about it.
You can be sure the UN will get involved at the invitation of The President and Congress. If that happens, it will be the first time since The War of 1812, that we will be fighting foreign troops on our soil. I can think of several countries that would be eager to send troops. It will be a bloodbath.
We need to stop and think instead of blindly jumping into it with both feet. All this is right out of the play books of Cloward-Pivin and Saul Alinsky. This is what Khrushchev was talking about when he said that we will be defeated from within. Wake up America. If Joseph McCarthy was still alive he would be saying “I TOLD YOU SO!” Let’s hope cooler heads prevail.
oldsarge – Thank you for your service and the sacrifices your family made, serving our country honorably with dedication. If your service included deployment overseas, WELCOME HOME, Sergeant! My generation of warriors was “welcomed” with denigration and violence; I now make it a point to throw out the welcome mat for having remained true to that which our Armed Forces may have required.
Your analysis is well received, and no fault is found. However, that which Sean Carey put forth is in the vein of our Minuteman heritage, having the patriotic flavor of rallying around our flag, for which credit is due. The question arises: Concern ourselves with what might result from resisting counter-Constitutionalist DemonKKKraps, or allow ourselves to be crushed by those same, dam’, dim Dems wanting control of us, deciding what “privileges” we are permitted to exercise? “[…A]s for me, give me liberty or give me death!” ~ Patrick Henry. He did not weigh consequences regarding other nations. Should I care about the rest of the world when my choices are to exist on my knees, begging “elites” for the privilege of assuring safety from armed criminals, or to take steps with Constitutionally guaranteed rights — regardless of any global consequences — to assure my own safety and that of others?
Would I again hazard my life, that I and others live in freedom? Honoring my oaths honors integrity, without which I am nothing.
De Oppresso Liber
I wouldn’t put TOO MUCH faith in our military “Siding with we the people”. NOT AFTER SEEING How many WILLINGLY DEFENDED congress on the 6th, AND WITH THE left’s push to “De extremize the branches” (meaning weed out all patriots and conservatives)..
ltuser – I saw no military (or naval) personnel in evidence at the Capitol on 06 January 2021. Please point me toward whatever evidence you have in support of that allegation.
Following Hurricane Katrina, the lawful disobedience of one US Army buck Sergeant became a focus for trainees. More emphasis is now placed on when to disobey unlawful orders, in accordance with the lessons of the Nuremburg Trials following WW2.
While even our Special Operations Forces (SOF), including Special Forces (SF) have been ordered by the Kameltoe/Bidet administration to become less effective, we, more than any other units, remain “True Believers” in our Constitution for the United States of America. Were I you, I’d trust that, at least for the time being.
De Oppresso Liber
I don’t remember that training when i was in, after Katrina.. BUT I AM SURE it got nixed under obama, or biden.
ltuser – Since it’s still being taught, it’s likely, as you say, that you just don’t remember it. If you’re still in service, try obeying an unlawful order and see just how fast you face a General Court Martial, IAW with the UCMJ and MCM. You’ll be lucky if you only get time in the stockade, busted to Private/E-0, and a less than Honorable discharge. (If you’re in other than the US Army, the terms are different, but the result is the same.) As a matter of fact, disobeying unlawful orders has been in the curriculum since WW2, was beefed up with the advent of the Nuremburg Trials, and at no time has there been a break in that curriculum, regardless of the idiots DemonKKKraps have lawfully or unlawfully gotten “elected” to be Commander-in-Chief.
De Oppresso Liber
The Democrats will try and pass gun control laws that do nothing to stop gun violence just to appease their ignorant base. If they pass a law that makes current gun owners criminals, we will not comply. They know they can never get rid of the 2nd Amendment so they will try and restrict certain weapons, magazines and ammo.
You are correct that they will never be able to abolish the 2nd Amendment but they certainly will try and do everything they think they can get away with in the process. Sadly, there are way to many leftist and spineless Federal judges that will assist in their efforts. That said, I believe there are 10s of millions of lawful gun owners that will refuse any attempt to confiscate guns and that any attempt to take guns by force will result in a bloodbath.
IMO THAT is why we’re seeing such a mass Ammo shortage. THE LEFT KNOWS they can’t take all the guns away, SO MAKE IT HARD for those WITH GUNS to fight back.. Can’t really use a firearm to defend yourself, IF YOU have no ammo!
Ituser – Fortunately, should confiscation by either US or UN military forces come about, there will quite suddenly be a glut of military ammunition available, as well as a plethora of military weapons and armament. Ya gotta look on the bright side!
De Oppresso Liber
These articles always throw in a sentence that the measure is popular with voters. What world are they living in?
They keep saying that the new proposal would prevent people from buying guns at a gun show without a background check. Obviously they have never tried to purchase a gun at a gun show.
I noticed the same thing. Popular with what voters? Illegals, dead voters, mythical voters who outnumber the actual number of people in a given county, robotic foreign interference voters?
THEY poll LIBERAL voters, that’s why its “popular” with the voters.. THEY ONLY GET the answer they want to hear.
I also don’t personally pay too much attention to polls and surveys. They can all be manipulated. Put the right questions with the right wording to the right audience and you can get the desired results.
Gun sales also went up considerably during the Obama years. Now they are going up under Biden. All both Presidents had to do was to publicly declare war on firearms and that sparked record sales. I wonder if they thought of going to the firearm manufactures to ask for a little kickback?
IT wouldn’t surprise me to see that they DID just that.
“semi-automatic military style rifles”
The ones with the lethal “barrel shroud” defined by Carolyn McCarthy as “I actually don’t know. I think it’s the shoulder thing that goes up”?
The AR15 was a sporting rifle, BEFORE it was modified to select fire, adding the option for full-auto, and designated the M16 for military use ONLY and later extended to law enforcement and unlawful enforcement like the IRS. Calling an AR15 a “semi-automatic military style assault rifle” is like calling Rachel Levine a woman or Pete Bootygig a man.
One of our congresswomen, Lauren Bobert, a 5′, 100lb. bespectacled slip of a gal, is leaving a light on for Beano O’Rourke whom she faced down in at a town hall meeting in Colorado September 2019 before she was elected:
“Gun-owning Americans who heard your speech and heard what you had to say, regarding ‘Hell yes,’ we’re going to take your AR-15s and AK-47s, well, I am here to say, hell no, you’re not.”
If it’s a “Military style weapon”, then that means everything from shotguns (which the mil uses) to revolvers, to 9mm’s are ‘outlawed’..
Actually, it’s many more than that as our DI in Basic Training waaay back when the Army fought instead of practicing “wokeness”, told us in our hand to hand combat training that even without the arms, each one of us had either 27 or 29 weapons; fists, individual fingers, heel of hand, side of hand, elbows, top front of skull, knees, heels, balls of feet, side of feet, helmet, boots, boot laces and belt. Probably forgot a few, but for the purpose and time, they were all “military style weapons”.
The military-style weapon would have to include all swords and knives and rocks, cause that was how Cain killed Able.
KNowing the leftists, they would try to ban knives and rocks..
ltuser – I’m waiting for the time in the not too distant future when leftiots require all rocks be serial numbered and registered prior to confiscation.
nhpollack – In what branch of our Armed Forces did you serve that you had a “…DI [“Boot Camp” Drill Instructor, which is USMC] in Basic Training [Basic Combat Training, aka “BCT,” which is US Army; as every Army Drill Sergeant will tell you, “I’m not in the ‘Crotch!'”)?” In certain training for some units, a Tac NCO might add, “Get your head out of your 4th point of contact, Trainee!” My compliments, however, on noting that any properly trained soldier recognizes a long list of “military style weapons,” the most important one being that on which your helmet sits.
De Oppresso Liber
nhpollack – Count yourself most fortunate to be represented by United States Representative Lauren Boebert! She’s a pistol! (I’m in a part of the State of Washington not represented by United States non-Representative Richard Ray “Rick” Larsen, who is one colossal waste of human tissue.)
Cogito, ergo armatus sum.
I figured it out a long time ago that the dummycrat party is the best salespeople for the gun industry. Try to buy ammo. The only ammo on the shelves around here is a small selection of shotgun ammo. Everything else is sold as soon as the store puts it on the shelf.
One store i checked with via phone, said they had a shipment in, and FOLKS WERE actually waiting OUTSIDE when the truck pulled up, to buy the ammo…
Dad all ways said he does not need a gun until they ban guns then he will have 3 of them. Thanks to obarma/biden the cartel has a **** load of guns that should be availaber.
disqus_ZUIBfETbEZ – Coincidentally, when certain types of firearms are banned, I will have lost just those types in a boating accident the day previous to the ban. A number of my friends are similarly “unlucky.”
Cogito, ergo armatus sum.