Even though it only had 30 days on the calendar, September 2023 still logged well over 1.1 million likely retail gun sales. 

According to data based on federal background checks for likely over-the-counter gun sales, last month was the 50th in a row where such checks soared past the 1-million mark. Holding the figure is quickly becoming the lasting goalpost in terms of America’s firearm purchasing appetite.

The tally was verified by the National Shooting Sports Foundation by sorting the released data for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System for last month. The unadjusted September 2023 FBI NICS figure of 2,035,410 – after the figures were combed by NSSF to remove checks and rechecks for carry permits – remains at 1,141,847 likely sales. By comparison, August's NSSF-adjusted NICS figure was 1,117,824, with September besting that despite having one day less to stack sales. 

All told, last month’s figures represent a more than four-year period starting in July 2019 where checks broke the million-per-month benchmark. 

"By the millions for 50 months straight, law-abiding citizens are choosing to their right to keep and bear arms, despite the efforts of gun control politicians to enact laws to chill that right and others that issue unconstitutional edicts that deny that right," Mark Oliva, NSSF's director of public affairs, told Guns.com in an email on Tuesday. "Lawful firearm possession is truly the determining factor of the American character – that we are a people of self-determination and not left to be victims of those who have no respect for life or law."

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