Some dealers said an unusually high proportion of sales have been to first-time gun buyers.

“We attribute it mainly to the virus scare,” said Hyatt, whose gun store has seen sales increase 30% to 40% percent since late February. The presidential election and stock market fluctuations have also been driving business, he said, and the store is now selling more than 300 firearms a week.

“People have a little lack of confidence that if something big and bad happens, that 9-1-1 might not work. We saw it with Katrina,” Hyatt said, referring to the breakdown in emergency response after the 2005 hurricane on the Gulf Coast. “People haven’t forgotten that a disaster happened, and the government didn’t come.”