This was part of a nationwide trend. In 2020, firearm sales went up an estimated sixty-five per cent. Demand was so intense that Farzad had trouble keeping guns stocked in his store. Many people who came in had never purchased a gun before. “I had a doctor in here, he had never held a firearm in his hand, ever,” Farzad said. “I said, ‘Why do you want a gun?’ He said, ‘Well, my co-workers told me that I need a gun—we’re going to have a civil war.’ ” Farzad sold the doctor a shotgun. He taught him how to hold it.