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California Sees Record Increase In Gun Sales In 2020
From 2019 to 2020 there was a 65.5 percent increase in handgun sales and a 45.9 percent increase in long gun sales, according to the office of state Attorney General Rob Bonta.
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Mario Tama
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Getty Images
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New data out Thursday on firearms sales in California shows that there was a record increase in the number of handguns legally sold in the state in 2020.
From 2019 to 2020 there was a 65.5 percent increase in handgun sales and a 45.9 percent increase in long gun sales, according to the office of state Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Separate reports from Bonta's office on crime in California, also released Thursday, found that the homicide rate increased by 31 percent in 2020, with 74 percent of homicides involving a firearm. The number of domestic violence calls for assistance that involved a firearm also went up by 42 percent.
"Those numbers are a reminder that while our gun laws have worked to keep California's firearm mortality rates among the lowest in the country there is still more work to be done," Bonta noted.
While violent crime rates in California are still well below their historic highs in the early '90s, Bonta said the increase in homicides during the pandemic is "unacceptable."
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