The old man in the White House keeps yammering on about the need for another “assault weapons” ban. This week, Senate Democrats obliged him by introducing yet another doomed bill to do that. Last night, Chuck Schumer said he’ll bring the bill to the floor to make Republicans vote on it (we’re sure red state Dems like John Tester will be grateful for that, too). Meanwhile, gun sales last month jumped 5% over last year, posting the third highest total for November on record.
According to NSSF’s Mark Oliva . . .
November’s figures of nearly 1.6 million background checks for the sale of a firearm at retail is a very strong indicator of a vibrant demand for lawful firearm ownership. The firearm industry typically sees a slight upswing in the number of background checks in the later months of the year, which coincide with hunting seasons and the holiday shopping sales. However, there are many communities with sustained levels of crime that have not abated.
Those concerns, along with the punishing antigun measures by the Biden administration and threats of more gun control promised by the Biden-Harris reelection campaign, cannot be discounted as contributing factors. Americans have demonstrated month-after-month, and year-after-year, Second Amendment rights matter and they are investing their hard-earned dollars to exercise their right to lawfully possess firearms before the right can be further infringed.
Here’s the NSSF’s press release . . .
The November 2023 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,595,476 is an increase of 5.0 percent compared to the November 2022 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,519,524. For comparison, the unadjusted November 2023 FBI NICS figure 2,594,906 reflects a 5.6 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,747,862 in November 2022.
November 2023 is the third-highest November on record and marks the 52nd month in a row that has exceeded 1 million adjusted background checks in a single month.
Please note: Twenty-four states currently have at least one qualified alternative permit, which under the Brady Act allows the permit-holder, who has undergone a background check to obtain the permit, to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer without a separate additional background check for that transfer. The number of NICS checks in these states does not include these legal transfers based on qualifying permits and NSSF does not adjust for these transfers. The adjusted NICS data were derived by subtracting out NICS purpose code permit checks and permit rechecks used by states for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases. NSSF started subtracting permit rechecks in February 2016.
Though not a direct correlation to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data provide an additional picture of current market conditions. In addition to other purposes, NICS is used to check transactions for sales or transfers of new or used firearms.
It should be noted that these statistics represent the number of firearm background checks initiated through the NICS. They do not represent the number of firearms sold or sales dollars. Based on varying state laws, local market conditions and purchase scenarios, a one-to-one correlation cannot be made between a firearm background check and a firearm sale.