President Donald Trump may yet rejuvenate coal mining or bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. But his election already seems to have been detrimental to at least one economic sector: the gun industry.
With the new president firmly aligned with gun-rights advocates, the FBI performed 9 percent fewer firearms background checks in the first half of this year compared to January through June 2016, according to newly released data.
In Georgia, the decrease was even greater. From January to June, the FBI performed about 269,000 background checks in Georgia – 11 percent fewer than the 302,000 it logged in the first half of 2016.
Through June, 2017, there were 12,601,102 NiCS checks. That’s a little lower than 2016 for the same period. 2016 set records because of fears of Hillary Clinton being elected and passing legislation making it hard to buy and own guns.
Bottom line: 2017 looks set to deliver the second highest number of background checks conducted by the FBI NICS (National Instant background Check System). NICS, ever.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) adjusts the NICS checks for gun sales, taking out the NICS done for carry permits or for permit rechecks. Their adjusted numbers show better news for the industry than the unadjusted figures. From thinkingafield.org:
The second quarter 2017 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 3,116,282 is a decrease of 2.0 percent over the 3,179,825 figure for second quarter 2016.
The adjusted NICS data were derived by subtracting out NICS purpose code permit checks and permit rechecks used by several states such as Connecticut, Illinois, and Utah for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases. NSSF started subtracting permit rechecks in February 2016.
According to the Industry group, the first half of 2017 is within two percent of the all-time record for gun sales set in 2016. That’s not bad news. Unless you think gun sales are a problem, that is.
©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch