Gun rights advocate expects sales surge after Tuesday’s win by Democrats

By Greg Bishop
The Center Square

Expect a surge of gun sales, but also gun control legislation after Tuesday’s dominance by Democrats in the U.S. Congress and in various states where the power is shifting to liberal politicians.

That’s according to Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Chairman Alan Gottlieb.

Tuesday’s election saw Democrats win seats across the country. Gun control groups heralded the wins.

“This wave of progress flipped control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, a rare shift seen only twice before in the last 70 years,” said a statement from Brady United, a gun control advocacy group that endorses candidates for elected office. “We witnessed red, blue, and purple states and districts across the country reject the Trump administration’s assault on public safety and the lawmakers who push deadly policies that prioritize gun industry profits over people’s lives.”

But, Gottlieb said it’s not just control of Congress Democrats won, they also are set to snag trifectas in states like Pennsylvania and Arizona.

“We’re gonna have a few more states that we’re gonna have to deal with where we’re gonna have some problems, particularly places like the state of Arizona and Pennsylvania,” Gottlieb told The States Thursday in a virtual interview. “Arizona’s gone from a you know a great gun right state right now to a very anti-gun state overnight. Pennsylvania, you know, that now the trifecta on the government controlled by the Democrats in Pennsylvania, many of which are anti gun and are gonna push all kinds of gun control measures.

Everytown, another gun control group, celebrated Arizona elections.

“Arizona voters flipped the State House of Representatives and the State Senate to a Gun Sense Majority!” the group posted on social media Wednesday. “This critical victory comes after thousands of our volunteers, supporters, and gun violence survivors connected with Arizona voters about the stakes of gun safety in this election.”

Everytown shared a similar message about Michigan.

But, Gottlieb said when there are big swings in politics towards gun control advocates getting in power, there’s also big sales surges of firearms.

“You see gun sales go through the roof and that’s what we’re already seeing,” Gottlieb said. “In the couple of weeks leading up to the election, people, knowing and thinking that, you know, things were gonna flip, gun sales had a big spike and we’re seeing that continuation spike yesterday, today, and I think we’re gonna see it for months to come now.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Firearm Background Checks statistics show October with more than 2.2 million NICS background checks across the country. That’s up from 2 million in September, but the third highest month of 2026 so far. In January and February this year, there were 2.3 million and 2.4 million respectively.

“I think you’re gonna see gun owners are going out and buying, you know, more firearms. They’re gonna be worried about restrictions on their right to purchase those firearms,” Gottlieb said. “And you’re gonna see a lot of new people come into it as well, where ‘hey, you know, I don’t own one now, but now it looks scary that I might not be able to, so I’m gonna go try and get it now.’”

With the prospect of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against state and local bans of semi-automatic refiles like the AR-15, one thing Gottlieb said could be coming from new legislatures are what he characterized as workarounds.

“I think on the anti-gun, the gun prohibition lobbies’ wish list, they start off of course with things like a permit to purchase so that you have to go through an extra hoop to be able to buy a firearm, extended waiting periods, extended background checks, different kinds of measures of where you where you can be able to take your firearm, more restrictions on concealed carry permits, be able to to get a permit to carry to for self-protection,” he said. “Those are the things that they’re gonna start with pretty quickly, I think.”

The U.S. Supreme Court hears a case challenging Cook County, Illinois and Connecticut’s gun bans on Dec. 2.

The new Congress will be seated Jan. 3, 2027.