As Americans’ demand for firearms remains unabated, recent data indicates a continuation of a trend that has persisted for over four years.
Gun sales, as deduced from federal background checks, surpassed the 1 million mark for the 49th consecutive month in August 2023.
According to a Tuesday report from Guns.com, the previous month was “the fifth-highest August on record in terms of federal background checks for gun transfers since the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System was established 25 years ago.”
Notably, while there has been a decrease in the numbers when compared year-on-year, the enthusiasm for gun acquisition doesn’t appear to be waning.
“The unadjusted figures of 2,047,515 checks conducted through NICS last month,” represents “a 16.4 percent drop from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,450,616 in August 2022,” but this figure still trumps those seen before the “Covid/BLM riot-era buying spike of 2020.”
Delving deeper into these numbers, it’s crucial to understand that not every check translates directly to a gun sale.
“The National Shooting Sports Foundation adjusts these to produce a figure that more closely reflects likely retail gun sales,” the report states.
Their adjustment showed a figure of “1,117,824 checks for last month,” which, while a “13 percent nosedive in estimated sales” from August 2022’s figure, still underscores the heightened demand for firearms as they “remained north of the million checks-per-month baseline that was crossed in June 2019.”
In response to this trend, Mark Oliva, public affairs officer with the NSSF, conveyed, “August’s NSSF-Adjusted NICS figure of over 1.1 million shows us, once again, that the desire for lawful firearm ownership is far from over. Americans, literally by the millions, are investing in exercising their Second Amendment rights.”
He continued, “This has happened every month for more than four years continuously.”
Oliva also offered a perspective on the broader political landscape, highlighting, “While the Biden administration proposes rules to infringe on fundamental American rights and certain governors, attorneys general and district attorneys refuse to lock up criminals that prey on communities without consequence, Americans are sending a clear and unequivocal message that their personal safety, and the free exercise of their rights, is non-negotiable.”
Yet, the data might still underrepresent the true scale.
The report adds that the actual number of guns sold is likely higher as it doesn’t include “person-to-person gun sales not made through FFLs,” which is a legal practice in 36 states.
The tradition of privately made firearms, “a cherished American pastime that predates the Constitution,” isn’t accounted for either.
Furthermore, “NICS numbers do not include multiple firearms sold on a single 4473 or sales in cases where a carry permit is used as an alternative to the background check requirements of the 1994 Brady Law,” the report clarified.
The gun sales landscape in the U.S. is intricate, with over “20 states accept[ing] personal concealed carry permits or licenses as Brady exemptions.”
Yet, the prevailing sentiment from the report is clear: Americans’ commitment to exercising their Second Amendment rights remains strong.
