Background Checks Prove Americans Continue to Buy Millions of Guns Each Month

July marked 60 consecutive months – or 5 years – of greater than 1 million month-to-month NSSF-Adjusted FBI Nationwide Prompt Prison Background Test System (NICS) verifications for the sale of a firearm at retail. This milestone is demonstrative of Individuals’ need to lawfully train their Second Modification rights to maintain and bear arms for lawful functions. The final time month-to-month background checks related to the sale of a firearm at retail have been beneath 1 million was July 2019, when 830,579 background checks for firearm gross sales have been recorded.

Since then, every month, the FBI’s Nationwide Prompt Prison Background Test System (NICS) has recorded over 1 million background checks related to the sale of not less than one firearm at retail. July 2024’s complete was 1,064,790 – a 4 p.c improve over the 1,023,903 background checks recorded in July 2023.

“This mile marker exhibits the enduring enchantment by Individuals from all walks of life to train their uniquely American proper to maintain and bear arms,” says Joe Bartozzi, NSSF president and CEO. “These million-plus month-to-month background checks over the previous 5 years symbolize the free expression of Second Modification rights throughout powerful and troubling occasions, together with the COVID-19 pandemic when sure governors have been shuttering gun shops and the Biden-Harris administration’s ‘zero-tolerance’ coverage to revoke licenses to promote firearms. Throughout this time, Individuals who by no means beforehand thought-about lawful firearm possession determined to change into gun homeowners. We’re pleased with our trade’s work to offer the means to train these rights to law-abiding residents throughout the nation.”

The 5 years of million-plus month-to-month background checks included report setting years for lawful firearm possession. The month with essentially the most background checks for firearm gross sales ever recorded was in March 2020, when 2.3 million background checks have been accomplished. That yr – 2020 – over 21 million background checks for the sale of a firearm had been accomplished by the yr’s finish. That shattered the earlier annual report set in 2016 of 15.7 million accomplished background checks. Throughout this five-year stretch of million-plus background checks every month, 86,410,889 FBI NICS background checks have been accomplished for the sale of not less than one firearm at retail. NSSF is grateful for the diligence and skill of FBI NICS to satisfy the staggering calls for year-over-year.

These figures are conservative. Precise retail gross sales of firearms are probably a lot larger. Twenty-four states presently have a certified various allow, which beneath the Brady Act permits the permit-holder, who has undergone a background verify to acquire the allow, to buy a firearm from a licensed vendor and not using a separate further background verify for that switch. The variety of NICS checks in these states doesn’t embody these authorized transfers based mostly on qualifying permits and NSSF doesn’t regulate for these transfers.

The adjusted NICS knowledge have been derived by subtracting out NICS objective code allow checks and allow rechecks utilized by states for hid carry allow utility checks in addition to checks on energetic hid carry allow databases. NSSF began subtracting allow rechecks in February 2016.

Although not a direct correlation to firearms gross sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS knowledge present an extra image of present market circumstances. Along with different functions, NICS is used to verify transactions for gross sales or transfers of latest or used firearms.

It needs to be famous that these statistics symbolize the variety of firearm background checks initiated by means of the NICS. They don’t symbolize the variety of firearms offered or gross sales {dollars}. A number of firearms could also be bought on the identical time and on the identical location with a single background verify, as FBI NICS verifies that the purchaser will not be prohibited from possessing a firearm, and never an precise verify on the firearm itself. Primarily based on various state legal guidelines, native market circumstances and buy eventualities, a one-to-one correlation can’t be made between a firearm background verify and a firearm sale.