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State police: Spike in firearms sales in PA

Gun shop owners believe there's currently a large demand for firearms because of the coronavirus.

DALTON, Pa. — State police believe there's been a spike in firearms sales based on the number of background checks they are receiving.

There were so many requests for background checks. On Tuesday, state police say it caused its online system to crash.

Gun stores in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties are seeing a spike in sales.

C and C Armory in Dalton is a relatively small firearms shop, but lately, it's been doing some big business.

Within the last week or so, the place has had an influx of people coming in looking to purchase guns.

"Oh, yes, a large, large increase in sales, firearms and the ammunition," said co-owner Bill Corker.

Business has been booming for Chris Harding as well, the owner of H and H Tactical in Exeter.

"Within the last week, we sold over a hundred thousand rounds of ammunition, we sold all of our inventory," said Harding. "We had a pallet of inventory in the back; we literally sold it all."

State police say they received so many background check requests Tuesday through their online Pennsylvania Instant Check System or PICS; it caused the site to shut down for hours.

Still, the system processed 4,342 checks on Tuesday, 3,000 more than the same day a year ago.

These gun shop owners say buyers either want weapons for protection, expecting panic will heighten over the coronavirus or out of fear gun stores will close, and they won't be able to get one.

"We've seen a pretty drastic increase in the last couple of days, ever since the governor put out the recommendations for closure," said CJ Cornell at C and C. "People are panicking and buying, we're seeing a lot of first-time buyers coming in."

"Just looking to get it before they can't or just in case, a lot of them are worried, they expressed some concerns," said Corker.

State police say there have been rumors on social media that PICS was shut down as part of Pennsylvania's response to coronavirus. They say that is not true, PICS is and will remain operational.

"I know how the systems work, a lot of people get nervous, they want to buy a weapon, system gets overloaded, and it shuts itself down," said Harding. "So, I wasn't too concerned about it."

"We got a message saying that it wasn't because of that, just that the system went down," said Corker.

The owners of those gun stores do plan to close, most likely later this week.

It's both to comply with the governor's closure request and because of a depletion of inventory.

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