Andreyah Garland, a 44-year-old single mother of three daughters, bought a shotgun in May for protection in the quaint middle-class town of Fishkill, New York. She joined a new and fast-growing local gun club to learn how to shoot.
She has since applied for a pistol permit and constantly hunts for increasingly scarce ammunition ¡ª making three trips weekly to a local Walmart. ¡°They¡¯re always out,¡± she said.
Like legions of other first-time buyers who are contributing to record sales for the U.S. gun industry this year, Garland¡¯s decision to take up arms is driven in part by disturbing news about the coronavirus pandemic, social unrest over police killings of Black people and a potentially contested election that many fear could spark violence.
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