Figures for likely firearm sales in the country last month resurged to break the 1 million benchmark.
Passing the seven-digit threshold is key, as July 2025 saw gun sales dive below that mark for the first time in 71 months.
The data comes from the trade group for the firearms industry, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which crunched the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System's reports for August 2025. According to NSSF, the adjusted figure of 1,091,342 checks done for likely sales, while a decrease of 9.9 percent compared to the August 2024 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1, 210,995, it still surpasses the 978,731 figure for July 2025.
“NSSF is encouraged to see the adjusted NICS background checks top 1 million in the month of August once again," Mark Oliva, public affairs officer with the NSSF, told Guns.com via email. "We know there is a strong and continued interest in lawful firearm ownership, and these figures bear out the truth that Second Amendment rights are valued. These figures are more than data points.
"They represent Americans from all walks of life who are, quite literally, investing in their safety, security, and freedom," said Oliva.
It should be pointed out that the true number of guns sold nationwide is higher than what the NICS figures may show. 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. At least 28 states have such a Brady exemption in place.
Further, the data doesn't capture homemade firearms unless they were assembled on serialized frames or receivers, or purposely registered by the builder with local authorities.
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