NICS Background Checks and Gun Sales Continue to Break Records in June, 2020

June of 2020 has continued the run of record setting numbers of background checks and gun sales for this presidential election year.

The National Instant background Check System (NICS) recorded the highest ever number of checks in a month in June of 2020. The total number was 3,931,607. The number is misleading because the number of checks done for permits and permit rechecks has outpaced the checks done for gun sales.

Most of the checks done, in most months, are done for permits and permit rechecks.

June of 2020 has reversed that trend by a little. Only 1.77 million of the checks were done for permits and permit rechecks. More than 2.1 million checks were done for gun sales.

The formula used to estimate gun sales from NICS checks, as provided by the FBI, is checks for handguns + checks for long guns + checks for other + 2.5 x checks for multiple guns on the same form.

The category of "other" consists of sales where the firearm is not classified as either a handgun, rifle, or shotgun. Most of those are probably for lower receivers. A lower receiver could be made into either a pistol or a rifle or a shotgun.  A growing number might be for pistol gripped "firearms" that shoot shotgun shells, and are over 26 inches in length, but do not have a shoulder stock. They are classified only as "firearms".

Such estimates cannot, by their nature, be precise to a few digits. They are a good estimate of the number of guns sold for that period of time.

2.13 million guns sold in one month is an extraordinary number of sales for June. It is a record for the month. Every month in 2020 has been a record, so far. May, June, and July are traditionally slow months for firearms sales. Not in 2020!

According to the monthly estimates, over 10 million firearms have been sold in the first half of 2020.  According to my records, it is more than the total number of firearms sold in every year until 2011!

Many people have decided owning a firearm is a worthwhile insurance policy.

This is not surprising given the current Media campaign to present far-left politicians in Leftist cities, coordinating with Marxist agitators from Black Lives Matters and Antifa, burning down buildings and toppling statutes in their jurisdiction, as a national existential threat.

The threat of a "cultural revolution" lead by the Marxist Black Lives Matter, is real, because it is backed by nearly the entire Media. People are being fired for merely saying "All Lives Matter". 

An uncertain future, mixed with leftist politicians demanding infringements on the exercise of Second Amendment rights, means more gun owners, and more Second Amendment supporters.

If the current trend continues, as seems likely, more than 20 million guns will be sold in 2020. According to NSSF estimates, 40% of those sales are to new gun owners. Eight million new gun owners can have a very significant effect in national elections.

An armed person has a different attitude than an unarmed person.Nicolo Machiavelli is perhaps the most famous writer to note this, in a political context. From The Prince:

Because there is nothing proportionate between the armed and the unarmed; and it is not reasonable that he who is armed should yield obedience willingly to him who is unarmed, or that the unarmed man should be secure among armed servants. Because, there being in the one disdain and in the other suspicion, it is not possible for them to work well together.

The arming of America continues. 


©2020 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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