Arizona gun sales hit record in 2020, driven by pandemic, protests, politics

WASHINGTON – Background checks for gun purchases in Arizona hit their highest level ever in 2020, driven by an unprecedented convergence of a pandemic, a summer of national unrest and a presidential election, experts said. Through the end of November, 610,911 background checks had been performed in the state, well over the 372,912 done in all of 2019, according to FBI data. The Arizona spike is part of a nationwide increase, said Kelly Drane, research director at Giffords Law Center, a gun control…