The last month of 2025 went out with a bang as data points to the fact that Americans once again broke the seven-figure mark in likely retail gun sales.
Some 2,220,852 federal background checks were processed through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System in December 2025. That was a 16.1 percent nosedive from the 2,647,933 logged in December 2024.
That sounds dark for the gun industry but a more important figure – that of checks used for likely gun sales – was down a more negligible 3.4 percent compared to December 2024. When the National Shooting Sports Foundation adjusted the numbers for last month to remove gun permit checks and rechecks, the adjusted figure stands at 1,587,049, which is down slightly from 2024's December figures of 1,642,270, a difference of about 60,000 firearms.
“The fact that nearly 1.6 million background checks were conducted in December for the retail sale of a firearm demonstrates that Second Amendment rights are critically important to Americans," Mark Oliva, public affairs officer with the NSSF, told Guns.com.
For 2025 as a whole, NSSF estimates that at least 14,612,314 checks were made for retail gun sales via the NICS system.
"This is an undeniable fact that lawful gun ownership is a valued and treasured right exercised by tens of millions of Americans daily," Oliva said in reference to the annual numbers. "Certain political figures continue to rail against and restrict the free exercise of Second Amendment rights and do so at the peril of ignoring these law-abiding citizens who are voting with their wallets. Gun ownership continues to grow even as we see falling crime rates. These Americans are, quite literally, investing in their personal safety and freedom."
Going beyond the NICS data set, the true number of guns sold nationwide is a higher, more elusive figure.
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. The ATF recognizes such Brady Exemptions in 28 states.
Further, NICS 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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