February’s a short month, but it was plenty long enough for Americans to decide to buy more than 1.3 million more firearms. Why? Because they can. Because they decided they need them shoot, hunt, compete, protect themselves and deter tyranny. And because it’s their right to do so. Unfortunately, Joe Biden was unavailable to comment.
The NSSF’s Mark Oliva tells us that . . .
Over 1.3 million background checks were conducted for sale of firearm in February, holding steady with figure from one year ago. This is demonstrative of a steady appetite for Americans from all walks of life exercising their Second Amendment right to lawful firearm ownership. Certain politicians choose twisted narratives to demonize firearm ownership instead of confront the criminal elements in our communities. Figures likes these, month-after-month, show us that Americans reject that rhetoric and are choosing to protect themselves and participate in the rich heritage of the shooting sports.
Here’s the NSSF’s press release . . .
The February 2023 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,343,593 is a decrease of 0.6 percent compared to the February 2022 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,352,105. For comparison, the unadjusted February 2023 FBI NICS figure 2,502,385 reflects a 0.5 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,514,818 in February 2022.
February 2023 is the 43rd consecutive month that has exceeded 1 million adjusted background checks in a single month.
Please note: Twenty-four states currently have at least one qualified alternative permit, which under the Brady Act allows the permit-holder, who has undergone a background check to obtain the permit, to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer without a separate additional background check for that transfer. The number of NICS checks in these states does not include these legal transfers based on qualifying permits and NSSF does not adjust for these transfers.
The adjusted NICS data were derived by subtracting out NICS purpose code permit checks and permit rechecks used by states for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases. NSSF started subtracting permit rechecks in February 2016.
Though not a direct correlation to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data provide an additional picture of current market conditions. In addition to other purposes, NICS is used to check transactions for sales or transfers of new or used firearms.
It should be noted that these statistics represent the number of firearm background checks initiated through the NICS. They do not represent the number of firearms sold or sales dollars. Based on varying state laws, local market conditions and purchase scenarios, a one-to-one correlation cannot be made between a firearm background check and a firearm sale.