As health care workers lined up outside hospitals wearing personal protective equipment, ready to risk their lives for COVID-19 patients, Americans across the country lined up in front of gun stores (opens in new tab).

According to the New York Times (opens in new tab), 2 million guns were sold in the U.S. in March alone, making it the second busiest month for gun sales after December 2012, when the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred, and just after Barack Obama's re-election. This was the second busiest month for gun sales after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012 and just after Barack Obama's reelection. Another startling statistic that emerged from this pandemic: March 2020, the month of evacuation orders and school closings across the U.S., was the first month since 2002 without a school shooting (open in new tab).

"I don't get it," says Tom Kubiniec, CEO of Secureit (open in new tab), a defense contractor that designs and builds weapons storage systems, including U.S. military armories.

"Anyone who is serious about defense and security should have their firearms locked and properly secured, their ammunition safely stored, and already be ready to go."

This idea of "preparedness" was born in anticipation of the civil unrest that President Trump himself has recently been inciting. On April 17, the president tweeted "Free Minnesota" and "Free Michigan" on Twitter, urging citizens to protest the stay-at-home order. Then he went a step further, tweeting (opens in new tab): "Free Virginia and protect our wonderful 2nd Amendment. It is under siege. The tweet refers to Virginia's recently passed historic gun safety law (opens in new tab). The law includes requiring background checks on all gun sales, requiring reporting of lost or stolen firearms, and reinstating Virginia's one-handgun-a-month policy.

Only in the U.S. are guns central to the global health crisis; after intense lobbying by the NRA, the Department of Homeland Security has classified firearms stores as "essential businesses." Domestic violence incidents (opens in new tab) have skyrocketed, and millions of children are bringing firearms (opens in new tab) into their homes unprotected (last month, a 13-year-old boy in New Mexico was unintentionally shot and killed by his 19-year-old cousin who brought a gun home to defend himself during a pandemic). If you thought America didn't have a gun problem, these armed men in masks will prove it.

"We know that the gun lobby works to sell guns in times of tragedy or natural disaster, and [the COVID-19 pandemic] is no different," Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, tells Marie Claire. During President Barack Obama's second term, they talked about needing guns to ward off hurricanes, tornadoes, riots, terrorists, gangs, and criminals; in 2016, they talked about needing guns to prepare for a breakdown of social order (after Donald Trump's election)." After Hurricane Harvey, they passed a law to ease gun (restrictions) in Texas. It's as if they are cheering the collapse of society from the sidelines."

The NRA is trying hard to maintain its presence during a pandemic (opens in new tab), even at the risk of American lives. Meanwhile, the NRA took advantage of the public health crisis to publish articles such as "Pandemic Exposes Dangers of So-Called 'Universal' Background Checks." The article stated that Americans "cannot trust the government to act as the gatekeeper of our fundamental rights" and that "Americans must firmly defend their right to privately transfer firearms without government interference." "

As states slowly begin to reopen, at least 2 million more firearms than before the pandemic are found in the hands of desperate Americans, most of them currently unemployed (open in new tab), waiting for the next threat. if the NRA and its interest groups actually look at the global health crisis that has already killed 40,000 people nationwide (open in new tab) who have already died (open in new tab), would actually take a look at the global health crisis, they would realize that guns will not save them. Test millions of Americans (open in new tab).

Join the fight against gun violence by joining Moms Demand Action (opens in new tab).