Gun sales are chugging along. They’re not breaking any records, but they’re steady. Steady as in October was the sixty-third straight month with at least one million adjusted background checks, the best measure of gun sales. As the NSSF’s Mark Oliva tells us . . .
Lawful gun ownership continues to be an important factor as Americans cast their ballots for the 2024 elections. Over 1.3 million background checks were conducted for the retail sale of a firearm in October, extending the streak of over 1 million background checks each month for 63 continuous months. Law-abiding Americans – by the tens of millions – are quite literally voting with their wallets and investing in their rights. These figures tell elected officials where America stands on support for the Second Amendment.
Here’s the NSSF’s press release announcing the October tally . . .
The October 2024 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,302.857 is a decrease of 5.0 percent compared to the October 2023 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,370,719. For comparison, the unadjusted October 2024 FBI NICS figure 2,298,383 reflects a 4.7 percent increase from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,194,313 in October 2023.
October 2024 marks the 63rd 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.