CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Several Corpus Christi gun stores and pawn shops are reporting increased gun sales with many people concerned about what kind of impact the coronavirus will have on society.
“There’s a reaction to different world events that causes spikes in gun sales," owner of Ready Reserve Keith Hanson said. "This one -- it’s not unprecedented, but it is definitely a lot stronger and more brisk than probably the past ten years that I’ve known.”
Hanson said his sales have broken daily records over the past three days.
“They want to be able to feed their kids," Hanson said of his customers. "They want to be able to use their toilet paper, and they want to be able to protect everything. They’ve got to be able to protect their family."
Ready Reserve is also sold out of freeze-dried food and MRE's -- compact meal kits containing food you rehydrate commonly used by soldiers and given to disaster victims from the government.
But the store's specialty is guns -- something Hanson said are becoming more popular in these uncertain times.
"A lot of people coming in right now are first time buyers," Hanson said. "(They've) never had a gun. (They've) never even thought about it.”