Surprise! June’s gun sales figures was only exceeded by 2020’s gargantuan total as people were confronted by post-George Floyd violence and mayhem on their TV screens last year, accompanied by their local politicians’ calls to defund the police. Almost 1.3 million new guns were sold last month (again, as the National Shooting Sports Foundation makes clear below, that drastically understates the actual number).
According to the NSSF, Americans bought an adjusted total of 4.3 million new guns in Q2. As the NSSF’s Mark Oliva tells us . . .
June’s NSSF Adjusted NICS background check figures for the sale of a firearm were the second highest on record and continue to show that firearm purchases are continuing at an elevated level when viewed over the last five years. This June, there were 1,279,300 background checks for the sale of a gun.
Aside from the enormous figure of June 2020, when 2.17 million background checks were conducted for the sale of a firearm, this is still exceeding previous benchmarks. Firearm sales typically slow during summer months, with the exception of last year’s record firearm purchases. These strong figures show that there is sustained interest in lawful possession of firearms.
It cannot be discounted that the continued elevated level of increased firearm purchases is driven, in part, by the gun control overtures by the Biden administration. As we head into Independence Day, Americans are exercising their right to keep and bear arms in record numbers even as the Biden administration is throwing up roadblocks to keep that from happening.
These factors continue to drive the elevated levels of gun sales: the nomination of David Chipman, a gun control lobbyist to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the proposed rules to reclassify firearm receivers as well as pistols equipped with stabilizing arm braces under the National Firearms Act, and repeated calls to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).
The Biden administration is determined to use every lever within reach to stifle and disrupt the free exercise of Second Amendment rights which begin with the ability of citizens who obey the law to freely approach the gun counter.
Americans aren’t buying it. Instead, they continue to buy guns.
June 2020: 2,177,586
June 2019: 924,054
June 2018: 892,479
June 2017: 1,016,213
Here’s the NSSF’s press release . . .
The June 2021 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,279,300 is a decrease of 41.3 percent compared to the June 2020 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 2,177,586. For comparison, the unadjusted June 2021 FBI NICS figure 3,042,379 reflects a 22.2 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 3,909,502 in June 2020.
The second quarter 2021 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 4,297,837 reflects a decrease of 21.2 percent as compared to the second quarter 2020 figure of 5,451,599. Historically, this is the highest second quarter on record.
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.