100 Days of Protest: A Chasm Grows Between Portland and the Rest of Oregon

pandemic drove up sales. Demand for guns and ammunition soared even further, he said, when the protests in Portland turned violent in the weeks after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis.

“There’s panic buying every once in a while but nowhere near like this,” Mr. Coleman said at the entrance of his shop, fortified with steel bars. “There’s such a massive rush, people are taking anything they can get.”

Mr. Coleman, who has sold thousands of guns this year, estimates that 70 percent of customers in recent months are first-time gun buyers.

In the town of Gresham, 15 miles from the urban canyons of downtown Portland, Bonnie Johnson, a member of a Republican precinct committee, is on a waiting list for her first firearm, a Smith & Wesson revolver.

“I didn’t even want a gun,” said Ms. Johnson who grew up in the neighboring town of Boring. “But when you see all that’s going on in Portland, it scares you.”