New York gun sales spiked 121 percent in June, study finds

New Yorkers are arming themselves at a record pace.

They bought more guns this June than any other June in the past decade, data show. The FBI ran 52,252 background checks for people seeking to buy firearms in the state, a 121 percent increase from June 2019. Most, or 31,003 background checks, were for people seeking to buy a rifle. Handguns accounted for 11,585 background checks in June this year. 

Cliff Pfleger, owner of Long Island Gun Source, said the Medford store has been so busy he sold six to nine months of inventory in just a 2-month period. Pfleger closed the store briefly after the state shuttered businesses in mid-March, but he was able to secure essential business-status and reopened about a week later.

“When the original COVID scare started in the beginning of March and people thought they might get laid off, at that point we saw a huge surge. We sold out of almost everything we had in the store,” he said, noting many first-time gun buyers opt to buy rifles in order to bypass the license needed for handguns.