November 2021 FBI NICS adjusted background check gun sales
Courtesy NSSF
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November’s adjusted NICS background check total of 1.543 million, which includes the heavy Black Friday week sales, has already made 2021 the second biggest year for gun sales on record.

The NSSF’s Mark Oliva had this to say . . .

The report of November’s figures puts 2021 as the second strongest year for firearm sales on record, behind only 2021’s outlier year of 21 million background checks for a gun sale. November 2021’s NSSF-Adjusted NICS total of 1,543,378 brings the year-to-date total to 16,722,291 background checks for the sale of a firearm. That remarkable figure was reinforced by the FBI’s report of more than 678,000 unadjusted background checks performed during the week leading up to and including Black Friday.

This milestone figure of more than 16.7 million background checks for a gun sale shows there is still a strong appetite for lawful firearm ownership and America values the God-given right to keep and bear arms. Month after month, and now year after year, Americans are voting with their wallets when it comes gun rights in record numbers.

November 2021 FBI NICS adjusted background check gun sales
Courtesy NSSF

Here’s the NSSF’s press release . . .

The November 2021 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,543,378 is a decrease of 20.8 percent compared to the November 2020 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,949,141. For comparison, the unadjusted November 2021 FBI NICS figure 2,692,188 reflects a 25.3 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 3,602,296 in November 2020.

The NSSF-adjusted NICS January – November 2021 totals 16,772,391 making 2021 the second strongest year-to-date on record, behind 2021.

Please note: Twenty-five 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. 

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20 COMMENTS

  1. I am sad to report that I failed to add to the 2021 firearms sales total.

    There were two nice firearms on sale at exceptionally low prices and I did not purchase them since I already had one or two (or is it three or four of them?) already.

    I AM on the lookout for bargain-priced ammunition. Needless to say, I have not found anything remotely close to 2019 prices.

    • I do regret failing to purchase one or two Heritage Rough Rider revolvers on sale for $115 at a local gun store on Black Friday.

      I already have two of them and did not see any need to purchase another. Looking back, I have decided that I will buy two more if that sale price comes my way again.
      How can you go wrong with a nice single-action revolver chambered in .22LR for $115 ?!?!?!? While I personally have no use for them, they would be incredible gifts to children or even grandchildren, nieces, and nephews some day.

    • “I have not found anything remotely close to 2019 prices”

      might not find anything close to 2021 prices next year either.

      • rant7,

        It is very hard to say exactly what the future holds.

        The absolute best prices that I have found for “full metal jacket” (both 5.56x45mm NATO and handgun calibers) are 2 times the pre-COVID prices.

        Intermediate caliber rifle ammunition (of the hunting variety, when I can find it in stock) and premium handgun self-defense ammunition is about 25% above pre-COVID prices and I can live with that since I only shoot a few rounds a year on average.

      • It’s funny how no one on here believed me last year when I said we were going to have inflation. Everyone was too busy spending their government checks.

        • Dude,

          Oh. I was not thinking about inflation in response to rant7’s remark. I figured that he/she was suggesting that there would be even greater civil unrest in 2022 which would lead to yet another spike in demand and corresponding higher prices.

          Now I have to think seriously about yet higher inflation in 2022 and whether (or how much) I divert more of my limited supply of cash to ammunition. Yuck.

  2. I’ll say it again…the very fact that so many BGCs are a matter of record is wrong in and of itself. NICS shouldn’t even exist.

    • I Haz a Question,

      Building on your comment (as we have stated on this site several times throughout the years):

      If we do not trust a free person in society with firearms, then we should not trust that person to be free in society with vehicles, knives, axes, archery equipment, matches-and-gasoline, chemicals, poisons, clubs, bricks, and rocks–and that person should still be in prison or he/she should have a guardian within arm’s reach 24/7/365.

      In light of the above, background checks should be meaningless and unnecessary.

      • “If we do not trust a free person in society with firearms”

        no no no. dude, you’re proceeding from a false assumption, as if YOU are a citizen – you’re thinking you and they (should) play by the same rules.. but they don’t see you as a citizen, they see you as a talking animal put here by god to serve them. everything they own and control is legitimate, anything they don’t own and control is illegitimate. they don’t want to ban guns, they want to ban YOU from having guns – whatever they and their lackeys own is completely legitimate by reasonr control.

        • rant7,

          I am well aware of the abhorrent mindset which pervades so many members of the Ruling Class (and those who aspire to be members of the Ruling Class).

          An excellent alternative way to describe the abhorrent mindset of many of the Ruling Class: they view the Working Class as “dairy cattle”–nothing more and nothing less–which the Ruling Class is entitled to milk and slaughter as best suits them.

          It really is that awful.

    • Hey, Haz, can anybody tell us about something NICS has ever accomplished? The only thing I have ever heard claimed was that it prevented some impossible number of people from buying a gun, obviously false, though I understood the goal was to reduce crime. Did crime ever decrease in response to NICS? I can answer that, no it did not. We have spent countless billions and intruded into millions of lives, all unconstitutional, for NOTHING! When will we just quit?

  3. (frantic aide) “sir! sir! the cattle are buying guns in massive quantities!”

    (looks up distractedly from his hot tub of willing toys) “are they forming militias yet?”

    (grinning aide) “no sir! they’re just mouthing off, just the way the fathers of blessed memory taught them.”

    (turning back to his toys) “report if they ever wake up.”

      • former water walker,

        What did you buy?

        Aside from my question, you have probably heard the prudent suggestion that everyone should own at least one long-gun chambered in .22 LR. Do you have a long-gun in .22 LR in your collection?

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