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With gun sales reaching an “all-time high,” NICS office conducted 3,514,070 total background checks in April.
It was an about 21-percent increase over April 2020. There were 961,947 handgun-related checks, 549,244 long gun related checks, and 602,540 permit checks last month.
Not every NICS check results in a sale.
Twenty-four states allow permit holders to purchase a firearm from a dealer without a NICS check (based on their permit status).
The overall growth of NICS checks since the system came online by looking at the total number of checks run to date each month since November 1998.
There have been 388,665,770 total NICS checks “of all types” since the system went live.
The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported the total population of the United States was 331,449,281 as of April 1, 2020.
The number of NICS checks conducted since November 1998 is 17-percent higher than the most recently reported U.S. population.
NICS checks related to long guns started off high.
Handgun-related and permit checks started to narrow the gap in the spring of 2016.
Permit data, especially early permit data, is limited by both the availability of permits and the near-constant run of permit checks in some states.
Some states would check as many existing permits in a year as they could.
The number of law-abiding Americans keeping and bearing arms is growing.
The continued high pace of NICS checks, only a third of the way through 2021 and have already conducted 40-percent of the total NICS checks run last year.
Firearms are durable goods. They are not typically disposable.
The continued growth in the gun owning community indicates law-abiding Americans will continue to exercise their right to keep themselves and their loved ones safe and to engage in the shooting sports.
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