FILE - In this Sunday, March 15, 2020, file photo, people wait in line People wait to enter a gun store in Culver City, Calif., March 15, 2020. FBI data released to the AP reveals that background checks blocked nearly twice as many gun sales in 2020 as in the year before, largely tracking with the record-setting surge in sales that took hold along with the coronavirus pandemic and has continued into this year. Nearly half the denied sales were for people with felony convictions.After a year of pandemic lockdowns, mass shootings are back, but the guns never went away. As the U.S. inches toward a post-pandemic future, guns are arguably more present in the American psyche and more deeply embedded in American discourse than ever before. The past year's anxiety and loss fueled a rise in gun ownership across political and socio-economic lines. (AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu, File)
