January 2019 NICS Check About the Same as the Previous two of the Trump Era

We have entered the third year of the Trump era of National Instant background Checks (NICS). It started with a January very similar to the last two years. National Instant background Checks (NICS) are the background check required for most sales of firearms by federally licensed firearm dealers.

There were 2,165,094 checks for January of 2019. In the first January of the Trump era, ihn 2017, There were 2,043,184 NICS checks. In the second January, (2018), there were 2,030,530. The three Januarys are remarkably similar, all within a range of only 134,564 checks.  The smallest number is in 2018. It is 93% of the largest, in 2019.

These numbers are tempered by the increasing numbers of NICS checks that are done for other purposes. The number of carry permits in the U.S.A continues to grow. That number is approaching 18 million. Permit checks and permit rechecks done in the NICS system are about half of all NICS checks.

In half of the states, this is offset because permit holders are able to purchase guns by using their permit to meet the background check requirement, instead of another background check. 25 States do not require an additional NICS check once the background check for the permit is done.

Here are the states where a NICS background check is not needed for purchasing a gun from a federally licensed firearms dealer, if you have a state carry permit:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

There were 1,162,142 permit and permit rechecks done in January  of 2019, 1,041,255 permits and permit rechecks done in January of 2018, and 993,743 permit and permit rechecks done in January of 2017.

When we subtract the permit and recheck NICS, the numbers for January 2017, 2018, and 2019 are  1,049,441 in 2017, 989,275 in 2018, and 1,002,952 in 2019.

Those number are a little flatter than the total NICS checks.

Americans are still buying lots of guns. The rate has declined a bit from the feverish level of 2016, but is high by historical standards.

If private gun purchases continue at the current rate, the American private stock of firearms will reach five hundred million guns by the end 2024.

Determining the exact number of private guns in society is difficult. One assumption is that unofficial guns and illegally imported guns, offset guns that wear out or are destroyed.

Kits for making your own guns, including tooling and parts, have become common and popular.  While some guns are made from scratch, many are created using kits. Most kits can be purchased through the mail, without any special license.

In some jurisdictions with strong legal restrictions against firearms ownership, homemade guns are a significant number of the firearms in society. In Nigeria, 74% of the firearms confiscated are homemade.  In China, over 98% of guns owned in the country are illegal. Many of the estimated 50 million illegal guns in China are homemade.

Legal barriers to firearm ownership apply whether the firearm is homemade or produced by a factory.

©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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