The next time you venture into your local gun shop keep the number above, and those that follow in mind. There’s a reason shelves and racks are empty, and it’s not some grand conspiracy.
The headline number is the total of FBI NICS background checks performed in January. The 4,317,804 checks are the most since 1998 and the first time checks have exceeded 4 million.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, 2 million plus were performed solely for gun purchases. That’s a 75% increase over the 1.17 million checks in January of last year. The NSSF adjusts the raw NICS numbers to exclude checks run for permitting and other non-purchase reasons. This provides a more accurate accounting of the numbers of guns purchased.
What’s more, the year over year numbers for most of 2020 show big increases according to the NSSF.
