NSSF: Americans Bought Another 1.2 Million Guns in April

We’ve clearly established a new floor on the minimum number of guns Americans buy each month. It’s likely somewhere between 1.1 and 1.3 million firearms. And in an election year, with the Cadaver In Chief promising even more gun control laws if he’s reelected, don’t expect those numbers to drop as November draws closer.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s adjusted background check totals for April reveal that Americans added another 1.2 million guns to the civilian arsenal last month.

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

Over 1.2 million Americans showed President Biden exactly where they are when it comes to his promises of increased gun control should he be elected for another term. President Biden has used every tool at his disposal to attack the firearm industry, from publishing Constitutionally-dubious and overreaching administrative rules that bypass Congress to create criminal law to weaponizing the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to throttle firearm and ammunition manufacturers and exporters. He attacks gun owners while ignoring criminals.

Americans reject these misdirected and politically-motivated maneuvers to infringe on their Second Amendment freedoms and punish the industry that makes it possible to exercise the rights to keep and bear arms. By the millions, for 57 months straight, Americans choose to lawfully purchase, keep and use the firearms of their choosing.

Here’s the NSSF’s press release announcing the April results . . .

The April 2024 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,216,116 is a decrease of 11.2 percent compared to the April 2023 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,369,296. For comparison, the unadjusted April 2024 FBI NICS figure 2,240,434 reflects a 14.4 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,616,729 in April 2023.

April 2024 marks the 57th month in a row that has exceeded 1 million adjusted background checks in a single month.

Please note: Twenty-four 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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1 thought on “NSSF: Americans Bought Another 1.2 Million Guns in April”

  1. Greg H Archambeau

    Are the NICS counts include states that are not in the true NICS sytems like NY, PA, and FL? Thanks Greg