Michigan residents have loaded up on a record number of guns in 2020, a year marred by the coronavirus pandemic and social unrest.
From January through October, the FBI conducted nearly 870,000 background checks for gun sales, more than any other single full year on record.
The number of FBI background requests, which provide the best estimate of gun sales, are already more than twice all of last year’s.
The first surge this year came in March, when COVID-19 prompted a state lockdown. The FBI received more than 107,000 background checks in March, compared to about 47,500 the previous month. It was the first month on record that the number of background checks exceeded 100,000.
The monthly background checks dipped below 100,000 in April and May before surging to more than 110,500 in June, when protests broke out nationwide over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Every month since then, the number of background checks surpassed 100,000.
This year's background checks have already shattered the previous record of 579,605, set in 2016.
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