With just 30 days on the calendar, June 2024 still logged well over 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 59th 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 June 2024 FBI NICS figure of 1,958,447  – after the figures were combed by NSSF to remove checks and rechecks for carry permits – remains at 1,059,037 likely sales.  

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

"June’s pace of background checks remained steady with another month of more than 1 million background checks for the sale of a firearm at retail," Mark Oliva, NSSF's director of public affairs, told Guns.com in an email. "That brings the streak to 59 months of Americans, quite literally by the millions, choosing to exercise their Second Amendment rights by first freely approaching the gun counter to legally purchase a firearm. That is a steady signal from America as we approach election season that the right to keep and bear arms matters to law-abiding citizens."

Banner image: A Tisas 1911 Manta Ray Duty B45B outfitted with LOK Ops grips. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)