Some 3.7 million checks were carried out in that month alone, corresponding to individuals purchasing firearms.
Bear in mind too that each individual can buy several guns under the same application. Bear in mind too that the US is already the leading nation for citizens owning firearms, with an estimated 390 million pieces in circulation, equivalent to more than one weapon for every citizen. Bear in mind too that the US is the world’s leader in deaths from mass shootings.
That's in "normal" times, never mind the highly anxious present development over COVID-19.
Every year, official figures show some 11,000 Americans are killed in homicides with firearms. Nearly double that figure die in suicides involving guns, putting the annual death toll from gun violence at well over 30,000. The US death toll from the COVID-19 disease is heading towards 10,000 as the number of fatalities escalates. Official estimates are warning of COVID-19 mortality in the US reaching as high as 200,000.
But what could add to the deadly impact of the pandemic is the prevalence of guns and the growing fear of social chaos. This is what Trump may have been hinting at when he said last month that the longer the economic shutdown goes on the more casualties will result. In recent days, the president has voiced concern that the US economy cannot go on indefinitely "paying people not to work".
Trump doesn't want the economy to tank because with that so will his reelection hopes flounder. More than that, however, Trump and the corporate class know that the capitalist economy is like a bicycle. Once it stops moving it will fall over. So, the imperative is to get businesses re-opened and workers back on the job.
What if millions of workers don't want to go back to the front line knowing that their lives may be at risk from a pandemic that has not been contained?
