Gun rights group predicts buying surge after Democrats take Congress

By SUZANNE DOWNING

Democrats’ takeover of both chambers of Congress could send buyers to gun stores before the new Congress convenes in January, the chairman of a national gun rights group said. Gun control advocates, meanwhile, are urging the incoming Democrat majority to move on proposals including expanded background checks and a ban on certain semiautomatic firearms.

“We may be about to witness a surge in gun buying not seen since 2020,” said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. He expects new firearm bills in Congress and in states where Democrats gained power Tuesday, and said proposals targeting semiautomatic rifles and pistols could drive demand for those firearms.

One measure of buying activity was already rising before Election Day. Bearing Arms reported that the firearm industry trade group NSSF’s adjusted federal background-check figures were up 7.9% in October from a year earlier. Gottlieb’s forecast concerns what happens in the weeks after the election.

Brady President Kris Brown called on lawmakers to pass universal background checks and a federal “assault weapons” ban and to keep funding community violence intervention programs. Democrats will be able to set the congressional agenda in January. President Donald Trump retains the veto, which Congress can override with a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

The National Association for Gun Rights said that Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., had identified universal gun registration as a priority.

Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, publicly backed universal background checks in April. A background check screens a prospective buyer for legal disqualifications. A registry records firearms or their owners. Current federal law bars the creation of a general firearms registry by regulation under the Gun Control Act.

Alaska has a firearms registration issue of its own. In October, Acting Attorney General Cori Mills urged the Legislature to clarify state law after the federal government stopped enforcing approval and registration requirements for certain items, including suppressors and short-barreled rifles.

Alaska law gives people charged with possessing certain prohibited weapons a defense if they complied with applicable federal registration requirements. The federal agency still accepts voluntary registrations, and Mills said lawmakers should clarify how the state statute applies under the new federal policy.