The pandemic and last summer's protests have heightened Americans' appetite for guns, leading to "an unusual, prolonged buying spree," the New York Times reports.
Driving the news: A week this spring broke the record for federal background checks — 1.2 million, the most since the government started tracking in 1998.
Why it matters: The uptick comes amid a rise in crime and as Washington has reignited the debate around weapons and how to regulate them.
Worth noting: About a fifth of all Americans who bought guns last year were first-time owners, according to new data from Northeastern University and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.
New owners were less likely than usual to be male and white: Half were women, a fifth were Black and a fifth were Hispanic, The Times reported in its exclusive look at the data.
The pandemic has intensified again, and the number of guns has increased. It feels that the society is getting more and more chaotic. I hope that people will be safer.