I have anecdotal evidence that the rush is, at least in part, due to a heavy influx of new shooters.
The owner of the range where I shoot is an NRA Basic Pistol instructor. His practice for the past ten or fifteen years was to run a class on alternate Saturdays. For the past several months, he has been running them EVERY Saturday, and the backlog is still increasing.
He has also been running some kind of promotion, offering a quickie, 1-hour introduction to shooting (loosely akin to the NRA "First Steps," I guess). I was hanging around the range yesterday after shooting. The owner was there when I went down to the range, and he was gone when I finished shooting. That's unusual, because he's usually there until closing. Something came up -- his wife called, and he scooted.
While I was lurking, a man and woman with two teen-agers in tow came in. They had an appointment for one of the 1-hour intro classes, and they (especially the woman, who was apparently paying) were very (and vocally) unhappy that the boss had blown them off. I'm certified to teach "First Steps," so I volunteered to teach the group rather than have them cancel the lesson AND go away angry at the range. I think that saved the day, but that's not the point.
The point is, later the guy behind the counter told me that they have been selling a metric boatload of these intro to shooting classes. There are a lot of people out there who are suddenly waking up to the fact that the police can't protect everyone, and the .gov is doing its best to prevent us from protecting ourselves. It is encouraging to see that some people are finally waking up -- I only wish they had done so earlier, to add their voices to the pro-gun side before it was too late.
