As the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States continues to skyrocket, it's not just toilet paper and hand sanitiser people are rushing to buy.
Demand for guns has also risen, according to the Los Angeles Times, with panic-driven shoppers waiting up to five hours to be served in some places.
"I want to buy a handgun, I think they call it a Glock, but I'm not sure," one buyer, identified only as Ray, told The Los Angeles Times.
"I have a house and a family, and they'll need protection if things get worse."
He said his biggest fear was that "civil services will break down".
Another buyer spoken to by the paper said the rush for guns was prompted by the fact that "people are truly scared".
More than 3000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the United States so far, with the death toll at 61.
The AM Show's US correspondent Simon Marks said Americans had been scrambling to buy necessities as fears surrounding the virus continued to ruse.
In Washington, the supermarket shelves had been "stripped bare", he said.
"Panic-buying [is] taking place in cities and towns all over the United States and that's partly because there isn't a sense of the national government here providing very clear instruction and direction to Americans - it's falling down to individual states, individual companies, individual institutions to decide what to do," Marks told The AM Show.
"Still, it feels in the United States as though we're in the early stages of the national response to what is coming."
Marks says there is also pressure on US President Donald Trump to deploy the army to help cope with the fallout from the pandemic.
"That is in part because of the absolutely astonishing scenes that the country has witnessed this weekend at some of its major airports."
Trump declared a national emergency over the weekend, banning flights from many countries in Europe before extending that ban to people arriving from the UK and Ireland. The declaration came just weeks after he called the virus a "hoax".
"Over the last few hours tens of thousands of Americans and green card holders have been arriving at major airports here and they've all been crowded together in close quarters - in some cases for up to five hours," Marks said.
"So there are concerns here that those crowds are stoking the public health risk that exists in the United States."
Marks says apart from concerns relating to health, the biggest worry for the government was the economic impact of COVID-19.
"President Donald Trump has got one major element in his reelection arsenal and that is the strength of the American economy."
Although officials are saying the economy won't slip into recession, Marks says there are signs that's not the case.
"I can tell you just observationally here in this part of Washington DC we're already seeing a number of small businesses threatened by what's coming and on a national scale that could be a huge problem."
