Whether it’s the prospect of a Clinton presidency, a number of high visibility terrorist attacks or concealed carry liberalization, 2016 is on track to become the year with the most gun sales in the history of the United States. September has maintained the blistering sales pace from August.
2016 NICS checks are far ahead of those for 2015, the previous record-holding year.
In 2015, the FBI ran 23,141,970 NICS checks. This September, the FBI conducted 1,992,219 checks, racking-up 19,872,694 checks for 2016 so far. That puts 2016 some 27.3 percent ahead of where 2015 was at this time last year. If this pace continues, the Feds will have performed 29.5 million background checks for the year.
There are 15 years where we can compare the NICS background checks to the actual addition to the private firearms stock, as reported to the ATF. During that period there have been about .6 firearms added for each NICS check.
The NICS checks cover more than new firearm sales. They’re also performed for used firearms, and when trade ins are sold at gun shops or when used guns are sold at gun shows. NICS checks are done for gun carry permits — which are also breaking records every month. (In most states, once a person has a carry permit, further NICS checks are not required to purchase a firearm.)
We will not know exactly how many guns have been added to the private stock in 2016 until late January, 2018. The numbers will not be reported to the ATF until the end of 2016. The ATF is required by law to hold them from public view for a year, to prevent proprietary information from being released. It’ss easy to see how one manufacturer would like to know exactly how many guns of certain models and calibers their competitors are selling.
Given the NICS numbers, there will probably be 18 million guns added to the private stock in 2016. That would increase the total number to 406 million private firearms in the United States. The private firearm stock in the United States will have increased by nearly 100 million firearms, or 30 percent, during the two terms of the Barack Obama presidency.
To reach that number there will need to be 10 million more NICs checks done in 2016 from, 1 October to 31 December. In 2015, 7.53 million NICS checks were done in that period.
Many indicators show a soaring and diverse level of gun ownership. Carry permits are burgeoning, approaching 15 million and more. Gun ownership among women and minorities is at an all time high. Who would have thought that President Barack Obama would be the record setting, all-time champion gun salesman?
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch