Firearms sales up for hunting — and defense

“Distributors are allocating their stock to spread it out so it makes it fair to everyone,” Potratz said. “They are in limited supply”

“In today’s world, I can’t just buy guns … there’s no guns on shelves in warehouses,” Snook agreed. “America’s buying guns at a high rate — again — more so probably than in the Obama days.”

The sales rate is not just because hunting season is drawing near. People are concerned about self-defense.

“Look at the news,” Snook said. “People are busting windows, we’re trying to live through a virus and now humanity’s got people marching and tearing stuff up and they’re painting things and breaking windows.”

Potratz has seen this, too.

“There’s an uptick in firearms sales because of everything that’s going on — the unrest and everything,” he said. “Some want them for personal protection, particularly handguns.”

Potratz said the types of firearms sought varies.

He said he’s seen a little uptick in shotguns, “but nothing like handgun sales.”

Snook said the rate of his firearms sales varies and he can’t cite an average.

“We don’t have an average. We sold four guns yesterday and that was a good day,” he said July 29. “But we sold four guns in the 10 days before that, so where’s the average?”

He also said the federal- and state-required background checks figure in. He said both check the prospective firearm purchaser and the firearm to see if either have a past connection to a crime.

“In Oregon only, just a week and a half ago there were 5,000-plus gun purchases in line trying to see if it’s an OK sale,” he said. “It’s a complete check system trying to make sure the right people are purchasing guns.”

He said he believes the backlog was at least partially to people being laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it seems to have speeded up.

“The past couple days, the background check system’s been going much quicker,” Snook said. “They’d start it in the morning and they ended yesterday the same day, so that has changed. It’s like maybe people went back to work or something.”

Both stores also sell camping equipment, which ties both to hunters and to people looking to do something to socially distance.

Potratz said Grain Growers has been building up its stock of camping equipment and selling “more than what we used to.”

He said, “People are doing outdoor stuff so tents, sleeping bags are in limited supply, also.”

But both came back to the fact that the increase in firearms sales has been prompted by what people hear about violence going on in urban centers.

“It’s more about self-defense than hunting — someplace other than Wallowa County,” Snook said. “Wallowa County’s very busy right now because people are scared to go anywhere in the city. There’s encampments of homeless, and where are you going to take your family in the city? So, fresh air, mountains, go hiking on a trail and to feel like you’re safe is very, very appealing with a lot of Americans.”

He said that benefits a rural, peaceful place like Wallowa County.

“Our summer traffic is very busy,” he said. “People like to frown at tourism, but it’s happy people arriving who are glad to be able to say hello and have somebody smile at them and help them get to a campground and they are very much enjoying courtesy.”