Americans voted with their wallets last month when it comes to practicing the right to keep and bear arms, as data suggesting over-the-counter gun sales passed the 1 million mark for the 63rd month in a row.
Last month was the fifth-highest October on record in terms of federal background checks for likely over-the-counter gun transfers since the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System was established over 20 years ago.
The unadjusted figures of 2,298,383 checks conducted through NICS last month is a 4.7 percent increase from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,194,313 in October 2023.
When the numbers for last month were adjusted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation to remove gun permit checks and rechecks, the adjusted figure stands at 1,302,857, which is a drop of about 5 percent compared to the October 2023 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,370,719. However, last month's adjusted figures were 12.6 percent ahead of September 2024’s, which came in at 1,156,223.
Headed into a national Election Day, industry analysts point to these latest NICS figures marking 63 months straight exceeding 1 million likely sales to show where Americans' hearts are on the issue of gun control versus gun rights.
“Lawful gun ownership continues to be an important factor as Americans cast their ballots for the 2024 elections," Mark Oliva, public affairs officer with the NSSF, told Guns.com via email. "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."
Going past the NICS data, the true number of guns sold nationwide is even higher.
This is because federal background check numbers don't include private person-to-person gun sales in most states or cases where a carry permit is used as an alternative to the background check requirements of the 1994 Brady Law, which allows the transfer of a firearm over the counter by a federal firearms license holder without first performing a NICS check. Further, it doesn't capture homemade firearms unless they were assembled on serialized frames or receivers, or purposely registered by the builder with local authorities.
Banner image: Kimber R7 Mako Carbon Compact 9mm with a Holosun 407K red dot optic. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com).
