The hot market for firearms sales shows no sign of slowing down this summer. According to the FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check (NICS) data, this April was the third highest on record – dwarfed only by the record-setting pace set during the pandemic, and further accompanied by widespread social unrest.
April 2023 also marked the 45th month in a row that saw more than one million guns sold. That is especially noteworthy as tax deadlines and pending summer vacations traditionally slow gun sales – while inflation also remains high.
Yet, none of those factors seemed to matter this spring.
Strong April and May 2023 for Gun Sales
According to an estimate by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms industry trade association, April’s figure came in at 1,369,296, up from last year’s 1,359,908 for April 2022. The figure represented a 0.7-percent increase when compared to the same 30-day reporting period in 2022, yet was slightly down from March 2023’s 1,556,492.
The sales also remained strong into last month, and NICS data showed that May’s adjusted background checks were up by 3.2 percent from the same period in 2022. May became the 46th month of more than one million sales.
“May’s Adjusted NICS figure of nearly 1.2 million is holding steady from the figure reported a year ago. Sales of firearms at retail continue to remain robust and this demonstrates that Americans continue to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms at a steady pace,” said NSSF spokesperson Mark Oliva via a statement.
“By any measure, Americans are telling their elected officials that this fundamental right is a cornerstone of freedom,” Oliva added. “By the millions, for over 46 months continuously, law-abiding citizens have taken ownership of their rights and responsibility for their safety even as some state and the Biden administration continue to work to diminish and eliminate the Constitutional right to lawfully own a firearm.”
Adjusted Data – Sales Could be Even Higher
Though not a direct correlation to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data provide an additional picture of current market conditions. NICS can be used for both new and used firearms, but currently twenty-four states also have at least 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.
As a result, the number of sales could actually be even higher.
It has now been nearly four years since gun sales have exceeded one million units monthly.
Strong Sales Even as Gun Control Efforts Remain
Several states, including Connecticut and Oregon, have sought to institute new gun control measures – and sales have remained strong despite, or perhaps even driven by those efforts. Connecticut lawmakers have called for a ban on the open carry of firearms, while the legislation would strengthen rules for gun storage and reporting stolen firearms, and expand a ban on AR-15s that first passed in 1993 and then was updated in 2013.
These and other gun control efforts, including those from President Joe Biden, have been seen to further drive sales.
On Monday, backers of the Second Amendment may have gotten some surprising support from an unlikely ally, notably Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. During his Twitter Spaces event on Monday, Kennedy – son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy – said he would not seek to ban firearms.
“My position on the gun control is I’m not going to take away anybody’s guns,” Kennedy said during the event hosted by Elon Musk on Twitter. “I’m a constitutional absolutist. We can argue about whether the Second Amendment was intended to protect guns. That argument has now been settled by the Supreme Court.”
The Democratic hopeful, who announced his candidacy earlier this spring, further noted, “Guns, the proliferation, clearly, abets violence, but anybody who tells you that they can remove enough guns, AR-15s, by tinkering at the margins and get to the situation they have in western Europe is pulling your leg. It’s not going to happen.”
Biden has been the gun industry’s best salesman, but clearly the same won’t be said about Kennedy. Yet, that might not matter as gun sales look to show no signs of slowing down. A million units sold a month is likely the new normal.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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