Gun Sales Drop Below One Million a Month for the First Time in Six Years

Gun-sales-related background checks slid greater than eight % year-over-year in July, touchdown under one million for the primary time in half a decade.

That’s in response to the most recent evaluation from the Nationwide Capturing Sports activities Basis (NSSF), the gun trade’s commerce group. It discovered the variety of Nationwide Immediate Felony Background Examine System (NICS) assessments related to gun gross sales clocked in round 975,000 throughout July 2025. That’s down 8.1 % from July 2024, and it marks the primary time since July 2019 that the ultimate quantity got here in at lower than one million.

“July’s figures of 978,731 background checks for the sale of a firearm at retail beings an finish to the streak of over 1 million background checks every month that ran for almost six years,” Mark Oliva, an NSSF spokesperson, mentioned in a press release. “Summer time months routinely present decrease background verify figures than different instances of the yr and we’ve watched because the background verify figures got here down from astronomical highs a number of years in the past.”

July’s quantity continues a dropping streak for the trade that runs by way of all of 2025. The primary quarter of the yr noticed a steep decline in gross sales, with a number of months dipping under their pre-pandemic ranges. The second quarter doesn’t seem to have fared any higher. Issues might proceed to worsen from right here as potential gun patrons face rising financial headwinds.

Moreover, Republican management of Congress and the presidency has probably decreased concern amongst many gun homeowners that new federal restrictions might be coming quickly. That’s in all probability blunted politically-motivated demand for firearms, because it did throughout most of President Donald Trump’s first time period. Whereas new restrictions in some states, reminiscent of Colorado, have appeared to surge native demand, it hasn’t been sufficient to arrest the nationwide slide.

There is no such thing as a one-to-one technique for measuring gun gross sales in the US. Nevertheless, the FBI publishes month-to-month knowledge from the Nationwide Immediate Felony Background Examine System (NICS), which serves as one of the dependable indicators of gun gross sales. It’s because federal legislation requires licensed sellers to conduct NICS checks when promoting firearms to prospects, and these gross sales account for a good portion of gun transactions in America.

Nonetheless, NICS numbers don’t instantly replicate gun gross sales. The FBI makes use of NICS checks for varied functions past gun gross sales, together with conducting background evaluations for hid carry permits. In actual fact, some states conduct month-to-month NICS checks on all hid carry allow holders. These checks are included within the uncooked numbers the FBI studies, which is one motive they’re reflective of the true variety of gun gross sales every month.

To supply a extra exact estimate of checks particularly associated to gun gross sales, NSSF filters out the non-sale-related checks recognized within the FBI studies. Their evaluation offers a extra correct image of how gross sales are faring every month.