That didn’t take long.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called for gun control less than 24 hours after two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were gravely injured by a gunman who opened fire as they sat in their squad car.
“Weapons of war have no place in our communities,” Biden wrote on Twitter. “We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”
Weapons of war have no place in our communities.
We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 14, 2020
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In a video of the shooting, the gunman is clearly holding a handgun.
The Democrat’s comments came after President Trump called for a “fast trial” with the possibility of the death penalty. “Animals that must be hit hard!” the president wrote on Twitter.
Animals that must be hit hard! https://t.co/zrOd9ZUl8o
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2020
“If [the deputies] die, fast trial death penalty for the killer. Only way to stop this!” Trump later wrote.
Trump has blasted Biden as weak on crime. “He’s not strong for law and order and everybody knows that,” Trump said of Biden during a “Latinos for Trump” roundtable campaign event in Las Vegas. “When you see a scene like happened just last night in California with the two police people – a woman, a man – shot at stone cold short range.”
With riots raging in major cities, Americans are buying up guns in droves. Skyrocketing gun sales over the past few months didn’t ebb one iota in July, which was one of the strongest for gun purchases ever recorded.
“Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting (SAAF) estimates July 2020 U.S. firearms unit sales at 2.0 million units, a year-over-year increase of 134.6% from July 2019,” the group said in a statement. “Likely single handgun sales (1.2 million) increased year-over-year by 152.0% whereas single long-gun sales (0.6 million) increased year-over-year by 108.2%. All other likely background check-related sales (0.16 million) increased year-over-year by 125.3%.”
“[T]he firearms market continues at its far accelerated pace. Our estimates suggest that the market for the first seven months of 2020 now has nearly matched that of the entire year of 2019,” said SAAF Chief Economist Jurgen Brauer.
Gun sales were not the only thing to soar. “In July 2020, the FBI conducted more than 3.6 million firearm background checks, making it the third highest month on record for checks since the bureau began keeping statistics in 1998, according to new data released Monday by the bureau. By comparison, the FBI conducted just over 2 million checks in July 2019,” CNN reported.
July’s numbers continue an explosion in gun purchases that has gone on for months, amid lockdowns for COVID-19 and race riots that began after the May 25 death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
Gun sales soared in June, with 2,387,524 weapons sold, a year-over-year increase of 145.3% from June 2019, SAAF reported.
