U.S. Gun Store Owners Say Asian Customers Are Buying Weapons Over Coronavirus Backlash Fears – By Ewan Palmer (Newsweek) / March 12 2020
Gun stores are reporting a sharp rise in the number of Asian people purchasing firearms to protect themselves from racist attacks amid the coronavirus outbreak.
David Liu, the owner of Arcadia Firearm & Safety in San Gabriel Valley, has claimed that he has seen around 10 times more customers walk through his door in recent weeks.
“It was crazy,” Liu told Newsweek. “One example is on March 3 and 4, I had 50 plus people come in here to take their firearms safety test and everyone one of them bought a gun. That’s quite unusual for my small shop.
“They’re all coming in because the media is telling them that Asians are being targeted, Chinese are being targeted.”
In recent weeks, several Asian people in the U.S. have been targeted in hate crimes in response to the virus, which was first detected in Wuhan, China, in December.
Earlier this month, an Asian male was sprayed with what appears to be air freshener by a man on a New York subway. The suspect was recorded yelling “because he’s standing right f**king next to me. Tell him to move,” apparently concerned he would infect him with the airborne spread virus.
In February, an Asian woman was also allegedly attacked at a subway station while wearing a protective mask in a suspected hate crime attack.
Continue to article: https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-gun-sales-asian-california-washington-1491891
