’Unprecedented surge’: California gun purchases spiked in the pandemic as unrest, violence rose

Gun purchasing among Californians rose sharply during 2020, and the trend is likely related to the increase in gun violence currently happening across the Golden State.

Gun violence experts look at federal background checks to determine the rate of firearm purchasing, and evidence shows that purchasing increases during periods of unrest or crisis.

Prior to the pandemic, California was reporting about 100,000 checks in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System per month, according to statistics collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In March 2020, that number shot up to 164,000. Background check rates in California have remained high throughout the pandemic, racial reckoning protests and presidential election of the last year.

Now, those like Garen Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, say the state is starting to experience the effects of that purchasing surge. He said the mass shooting in San Jose on Wednesday, which left nine dead and several injured, is part of an increase in gun violence in California this year. A purchasing surge can contribute to that, he said.

“There was an unprecedented surge in firearm purchases, and up through the middle of last year, the size of the increase in violence was proportional to the size of the increase in firearm purchasing,” Wintemute said in an email. “There was also social disruption on many fronts, on a scale we’ve not seen in many years. We are just beginning to experience the effects of those changes, and preliminary data suggest the increase in violence has continued in the first months of 2021.”

Public mass shootings decreased last year, likely in part due to shutdown policies, Wintemute added, but mass shootings generally continued.

Public mass shootings, the ones that receive significant attention, account for a minority of all mass shootings, which are defined as instances in which four or more people are shot or killed. More generally, rates of violence rose in 2020. Homicide increased by 20% or more in many large and small cities, Wintemute said, in some cases to rates not seen in a generation.

Following the shooting at San Jose on Wednesday, California lawmakers expressed condolences for the families of the victims, and renewed calls for legislation to address gun violence.

“A mass shooting anywhere, anytime is an unforgivable tragedy,” Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon tweeted. “It is especially discouraging when they continue to occur in California, where we have worked so hard to prevent this on many fronts. There is no vaccine for epidemic gun violence.”

“As we learn more about the shooting in San Jose, one thing is clear — we must address our country’s struggle with gun violence with urgency,” said state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins. “We cannot lose more of our neighbors in this tragic way.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom traveled to San Jose to speak with local leaders and condemn inaction on what he called a “pandemic of gun violence.”

“What the hell is going on in the United States of America? The hell’s wrong with us?” Newsom said. “When are we going to come to grips with this?”

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein directed blame at Congressional Republicans.

“The common thread in every mass shooting is easy access to deadly weapons,” Feinstein said in a statement. “We’re the only country that experiences mass shootings on a regular basis, and it’s largely because congressional Republicans refuse to take reasonable steps to reduce gun violence.”

This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 4:14 PM.