WASHINGTON – Background checks for gun purchases in Arizona hit their highest level ever in 2020, driven by an unprecedented convergence of a pandemic, a summer of national unrest and a presidential election, experts said.

With a month left to go in the year, 610,911 background checks had been performed in the state through November, well over the 372,912 done in all of 2019, according to FBI data.

The Arizona spike is part of a nationwide increase, said Kelly Drane, research director at Giffords Law Center, a gun-control advocacy group. She estimated that there was a nearly 90% increase in gun sales nationally from March to October this year compared to last year, with early data indicating “a substantial number of these purchases were made by new gun owners.”

Veerachart Murphy said that is what he has seen at Ammo AZ, the Phoenix gun store he owns, where there has been a “huge uptick in first-time buyers.”

“Between the election and COVID and shutdowns and riots – it was enough to get them off the couch and come in and actually make their first purchase,” Murphy said of “people that were kind of maybe on the fence” about buying a gun.

He said his biggest spike in sales came early this year as COVID-19 began dominating the news, with a 400% increase in sales from January to February. He attributes it to anxiety about a possible pandemic-related lockdown.

Sales remained relatively high, he said, until another spike in the summer, when clashes between police and protesters were in the headlines.

That experience tracks the FBI’s data, which shows that Arizona had the highest number of background checks in March, with nearly 83,000, followed by June and July, which had 74,000 and 60,000 background checks, respectively.

Murphy said he has seen similar spikes since he got into the gun business in 2013, usually after active-shooter incidents or mass shootings – and before the 2016 presidential election when sales jumped in anticipation of a win by Democrat Hillary Clinton. Sales tailed off then after gun-friendly President Donald Trump took office.

MOAB, Utah – Climate change and increased demand for water across the Southwest are shrinking the Colorado River’s second-biggest reservoir, Lake Powell. Although water managers worry about scarcity issues, two local river guides are documenting the changes that come as the enormous reservoir hits historic lows.

For the past three years, Mike DeHoff and Pete Lefebvre have carefully photographed and mapped Cataract Canyon on their guided raft trips on the river. For more than four decades, the lower portion of the beloved canyon has been submerged, but now that the lake’s water levels are plummeting, things in Cataract are rapidly changing.

“There are rapids down there that are not on any published river map right now,” DeHoff said. “They’re coming back at a rate that publication can’t keep up with.”

The pair photographed these returning rapids year-to-year, illustrating in real-time what it looks like as Lake Powell’s water levels shift. Lefebvre said he was inspired by “Chasing Ice,” a 2012 film that documented shrinking glaciers from a sustained rise in global temperatures.

“I remember watching that movie and thinking, ‘I need to be doing this in Cataract,’” Lefebvre said. “If I have a picture of Dark Canyon and the mouth of Clearwater (Canyon) and these places where the rapids used to be, maybe I can start documenting that change.”

It wasn’t long before their hunt for new rapids sent them digging into the past. DeHoff has spent hours poring over old river maps, guidebooks, and historic photos in search of clues.

PHOENIX – Even as courses throughout Arizona stayed open, COVID-19 robbed local golfers of some of the smaller delights of a day at the links.

For example, pulling the flagstick is a sign that a player is about to accomplish the challenging feat of completing a hole. However, many courses have placed a circular piece of foam in the cup to discourage this satisfying tradition to help limit exposure to the coronavirus.

The foam barriers placed in golf holes are one of many changes Arizona courses had to make to keep players and staff safe amid the pandemic.

When the virus forced lockdowns in March, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey kept golf courses open by declaring them as essential businesses. As part of his executive order, clubs had to close many indoor areas and facilities, but the courses themselves remained open for business.

For the most part, courses in the state did more than just stay open. Many saw their businesses thrive and even expand in some cases. Several courses have reported an increase in the number of rounds played since the onset of the virus earlier this year.

Golf is big business in the state. According to a 2016 study from the University of Arizona, golf contributes $3.9 billion to the state’s economy every year. And that number has likely increased, said Bob Sykora, the general manager of Mesa Country Club.

“We were already trending to grow in golf,” he said. “We are in a position to grow. We were in a position where we were looking to have accelerated growth in golf. … While the pandemic didn’t hurt us necessarily, we were already on that trajectory.”

According to the UA report, golf tourism, in which people come from out of state to either play or watch golf, is responsible for $1.1 billion of that nearly $3.9 billion output. In a year where people are traveling less and less, courses have had to rely on the business of locals for much of this year.

PHOENIX – Attorney Ehsan Zaffar is leading an initiative to establish a civil rights center at Arizona State University to target inequality in the U.S. To do so, Zaffar envisions a range of products, services and programs – perhaps including Yelp-like reviews of how Arizona companies address social justice issues.

“Inequality is the greatest social, political, economic problem facing this country today,” said Zaffar, a civil rights and civil liberties official with the Department of Homeland Security who will join ASU in January. “I think our country is headed back to a time when institutions were powerless to fix the problems in the country. There’s a lack of trust.”

He hopes the center’s work will help strengthen institutions by encouraging them to be more responsive to the public and to produce more factual information about social justice issues.

Zaffar said his work at the center, which will include fundraising, also could examine how news and social media cover certain communities in ways that affect lawmakers, analyze emergency response times in communities of color and explore the gender pay gap in U.S. companies.

WASHINGTON – Arizonans were heavily invested in this fall’s elections in more ways than one, donating a total of at least $110 million to support candidates and high-profile ballot initiatives.

That was a sharp increase from the $60 million that state voters donated just four years ago. And the increases this year were seen across the board, with Arizonans opening their wallets for presidential as well as federal and state campaigns.

“People on both sides obviously felt extremely passionate about the presidential and Senate elections,” said Jason Rose, a Republican political consultant in Arizona. “They saw an opportunity to effect change this way.”

The surge in giving was driven by unusually high interest in the presidential and Senate races and Arizona’s newfound status as a battleground state. While that drew large amounts of money from out of state, it apparently inspired state residents to contribute more, too.

Democrats appeared to be especially motivated, donating to what turned out to be successful campaigns for president and for Senate.

President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump was the first time the state had voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1996. And Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, unseated Republican Sen. Martha McSally to give the state two Democratic senators for the first time since the 1950s. It also brought Democrats one seat closer to control of the Senate.

“The Arizona Senate race was one of the few opportunities where Democrats were seen as potentially able to flip a Senate seat,” said Kim Fridkin, foundation professor of political science at Arizona State University.