Security and self-defense businesses see increase in clientele
By: Michał Kranz
Tags: Security, Covid 19, New York City, Self Defense, Guns

John DeLoca, the owner of Seneca Sporting Range in Ridgewood, Queens, sets his pistol sights on a target at his range. DeLoca, who also holds instructional sessions and prepares gun license applications for the New York Police Department, said that the number of new applications he has processed in 2020 is at least four times the amount of previous years. (Photo: Michal Kranz)

Steve Faucette, a security technician in Long Island, recently decided he wanted to buy a shotgun to protect his home.

“You have the right to bear arms, and a lot of minorities in this country have been very passive towards that,” said Faucette, who is African American and blames President Donald Trump for facilitating an increase in violence in the country.

Faucette is still waiting to update his driver’s license in order to buy a gun, but he’s not the only one interested in doing so in the New York City area. Firearm training instructors, gun retailers, and consultants in the metro area said that the number of people applying for firearm licenses during the pandemic grew by an average of 370% compared to previous years. According to 90% of instructors and owners polled at firearm academies and shooting ranges in the New York City metro area, demand for gun training courses has risen since the start of the pandemic and especially since this summer’s protests and civil unrest. The monthly average of firearms trainees has jumped from 51 to 359, according to companies who agreed to give their class attendance numbers. Meanwhile, sales of personal security equipment like pepper spray and less lethal projectile weapons have increased by an average of 350% and self-defense courses have also seen a rise in inquiries from potential clients, according to eight retailers and trainers surveyed in the metro area.

“We’re slammed,” said Cesar Pinero, chief instructor and manager at Pioneer Shooting Center in Mt. Vernon, NY, just north of the Bronx. Pinero said that while the range used to host 15 students per class twice a month, since July, it has been running 32-student classes 8 times a month.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the number of firearm background checks in New York state between June and September totaled 185,174, compared to 104,666 during the same period in 2019.

Matthew Seifer, who owns Radius Investigations and Guardian Security in Nassau County, said demand for the Byrna gun, a weapon powered by compressed air according to the company website, jumped from 30 total sales to 10 sales a day after the product was featured on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox in early June.

After losing all his clients during the COVID-19 lockdown, Jose Esquea, a private personal trainer and martial arts instructor, said he began seeing interest again starting in the week of the Republican National Convention in mid-August. He has since begun working with 10 students, 5 of whom are first-time signups. Other martial arts gyms and self-defense instructors surveyed said they also witnessed upticks in interest, even as they had been forced to depend on online-only instruction or outdoor classes and continue to lag behind pre-pandemic levels in in-person attendance.

For Esquea though, this rise in demand is not wholly positive.

“I feel bad when there are so many people that are seeking refuge in learning self-defense because they’re so scared, whether they’re on the left or the right,” he said. “It’s sad to think that my country is at a place where people are so scared of each other that they would rather know how to fight each other than talk to one another.”