As states like Virginia prepare to drop some of the harshest anti-gun laws and bans yet, firearm and firearm-related sales marched steadily upward in April.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System saw 1,193,428 checks last month, marking a 1.6 percent increase compared to last year. That number is based on the NSSF’s adjusted figures that remove simple gun permit checks and rechecks.
However, it is the FBI’s numbers for increasingly anti-gun states that reveal the strongest trends.
The numbers simply don’t lie, and they tell a compelling story of law-abiding Americans in increasingly restrictive states attempting to exercise their Second Amendment rights… while they still can.
For instance, as legislators in Virginia attempt to turn it into a virtual gun desert, gun sales showed a nearly 79 percent increase in background checks from just a year ago. Despite its ranking as the 12th most populous state in the Union, Virginia came in fifth for total handgun sales and a shockingly high second for long gun sales.
The increase in long gun sales is easily explained by the soon-to-be laws banning the sale of popular modern sporting rifles (MSRs), like the AR-15, in The Dominion State.
“That shows there’s a steady and increasing appetite among Americans for exercising their Second Amendment rights,” said Mark Oliva, NSSF’s managing director for public affairs. “This is especially true in states where antigun lawmakers are threatening Second Amendment rights.”
In Connecticut, as lawmakers ponder bans on popular striker-fired handguns, background checks increased 28 percent. Meanwhile, Rhode Island is on a course that would require the confiscation of MSRs altogether, and it saw a rebellious 54 percent increase in background checks.
Suppressor & Other NFA Sales Soar
It’s not just guns that are flying off the shelves in anti-gun states, either. Background checks for National Firearms Act items, such as suppressors, tell a similar story.
April saw figures for NFA checks on items such as suppressors hit 190,086. That is a staggering 130.3 percent increase compared to 2025’s paltry 82,519 checks. Not surprisingly, certain states facing harsh new restrictions are helping to lead that surge in NFA checks and sales.
Gun-friendly Texas, with around 31 million residents, accounted for 26,648 NFA checks in April. Yet, the aspiring gun desert that is Virginia saw a whopping 18,538 checks in the same period, despite hosting a population more than 3.5 times smaller.
The numbers for the sale of items like suppressors owe a lot to the recent removal of the $200 “tax” transfer fee previously associated with all NFA sales last year. Thus, they are even more striking when you jump into a time machine and go back.
Data recently released by the American Suppressor Association shows that federal regulators had some 5,776,685 suppressors registered as of January 2026. That is a stunning 1,926 percent increase from the 285,087 registered suppressors nationwide in 2010.
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