The National Shooting Sports Foundation announced on Monday that July 2024 will be the 60th consecutive month where more than 1 million background checks have been performed for retail gun sales.
According to NSSF, the total number of National Instant Criminal Background Checks (NICBC) for gun sales was 1,106,790 in July.
The NSSF reported that in July 2019 there were 830 579 background checks recorded for firearm sales.
Joe Bartozzi, CEO of NSSF and president of the organization, commented on this:
The millions of background checks performed each month over the last five years are a free expression by Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights in difficult and troubling circumstances, such as the COVID-19 epidemic when some governors closed gun shops and the Biden and Harris administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that revoked licenses to buy firearms. Americans who had never considered owning a gun legally decided to do so during this period. We are proud of the work our industry has done to give law-abiding Americans the ability to exercise their rights.
We have repeatedly pointed out that FBI monthly reports on background checks don’t provide an accurate figure of the number of gun sales for a particular month. Some states conduct background checks regularly on concealed carry permit holders and those who are applying for their first permit. In neither case is a gun sold.
NSSF examines the FBI background check report and whittles down all but those background checks that are relevant to actual sales. Then, it publishes this figure. This final number has been over 1 million per month for 60 months in a row.
