SHERMAN, Texas (KTEN) -- Gun sales continue to rise at a record-setting pace that began early last year when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Sales hit a historic high in January.

"It's kind of unbelievable how fast things are moving," said Tap Smith, co-owner of Blackbeard Armory and Range in Sherman.

He said after things were shut down at the beginning of the pandemic, sales started increasing. As the year went on, he said numbers seemed to grow monthly.

"I always said, depending on how the presidential election went, you would see -- even if President Trump was elected -- you'd still see gun sales just off the chart," Smith said. "But if Biden won and Democrats starting introducing -- regardless what side you're on -- but if they started introducing gun control bills, you would see a huge increase, and that's exactly what we've seen."

The National Shooting Sports Foundation says gun dealers sold more than 2 million firearms in January. That's up 75 percent from January 2000.

"It seems like every time there's a stimulus package, it's a gun-purchasing package," Smith said. "You have sales walking out because you can't keep the supplies in, or you just can't special order stuff like you would use to be able to do, so it definitely is a lot bigger chore to keep the store full."

Aside from politics, uncertainty brought on by this pandemic has some people reaching for some sort of protection for themselves and their families.

"I don't think we'd being see this if everything was the nice, peaceful country that we grew up in or were used to," Smith said. "It's unbelievable that in America you'd see whole cities being burned and trashed out."

Smith added that he does not expect the increase in gun sales to slow anytime soon.