The phone at 717 Armory in Harrisburg rang off the hook immediately following Gov. Tom Wolf’s announcement on Thursday that all non-life sustaining businesses in Pennsylvania must close as a way to slow the spread of coronavirus.
"I feel like I’m a life-sustaining business,” said owner Patrick Connaghan. "100 percent too harsh of a restriction.”
Physical locations such as Connaghan’s at 7500 Derry Street were told to close as of 8 p.m. today. Enforcement actions against businesses that do not close will begin at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
"They don’t even say for how long we are supposed to be closed,” he said.
Prior to the announcement, Connaghan said his gun and ammo sales were “out of this world.”
"I made more money in the past five days than I have for as long as I’ve been in business,” he explained. "Two days, I eclipsed Black Friday numbers.”
717 Armory has been communicating with its existing and new customers through social media pages. Connaghan said he’s been scaling back operations to take part in social distancing.
"Other than for snowstorms, we don’t close,” he said.
He said he’s been in business since January 2018 offering classes and private lessons on how to responsibly shoot, load and maintain a gun.
"We suspended all of our group lessons,” Connaghan said. “We do hundreds and hundreds of hours of group trainings.”
At this point, he said almost all of his ammo has already been sold. The shooting range, however, was going to remain open. He said in an Instagram video he planned to limit the time people can shoot to ensure everything was being disinfected
"All the rental stuff is getting disinfected every time it comes on and off the range,” he said. “We’re trying our best down here to keep everybody safe from the coronavirus as well as still teaching you guys and allow you guys to express your 2nd Amendment rights to defend yourself and those people around you.”
Other businesses that sell guns were unable to be reached. A call to the Sportsman’s Warehouse at 3500 Capital City Mall Drive ended with a voicemail box that was full.
Ammo.com, an online retailer of ammunition, has also seen a recent spike in sales. According to the company, from Feb. 23 to March 4, transactions increased 68 percent compared with the 11 days before Feb. 23, a day when Italy reported a major outbreak of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
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