U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- NSSF, the trade association for the firearm industry, updated retail survey-based estimates and concluded that nearly 5 million Americans purchased a firearm for the very first time in 2020. NSSF surveyed firearm retailers which reported that 40 percent of sales were conducted to purchasers who have never previously owned a firearm.
NSSF tracks the background checks associated with the sale of a firearm based on the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System (NICS). NSSF-adjusted NICS checks for January through July 2020 is a record 12.1 million, which is up 71.7 percent from the 7.1 million NSSF-adjusted NICS January through July 2019. This equates to nearly 5 million first-time gun owners in the first seven months of 2020.
“This is a tectonic shift in the firearm and ammunition industry marketplace and complete transformation of today’s gun-owning community,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President of General Counsel. “These first-time buyers represent a group of people who, until now, were agnostic regarding firearm ownership. That’s rapidly changing, and these Americans are taking hold of their God-given right to keep and bear arms and protect themselves and their loved ones.”
NSSF surveys revealed that 58 percent of firearm purchases were among African American men and women, the largest increase of any demographic group. Women comprised 40 percent of first-time gun purchasers. Retailers noted that they are seeing a 95 percent increase in firearm sales and a 139 percent increase in ammunition sales over the same period in 2019.
Several factors are contributing to the sustained surge in firearm purchases. Sales spiked in March, with a record-setting 2.3 million NICS background checks conducted for a firearm sale, the same month the coronavirus pandemic struck. During this time, police warned response times would be tested while mayors and governors emptied prisons, including violent felons. Some of those were rearrested within days for committing another violent crime. After Memorial Day, protests turned to looting, riots, and destruction, which continues today in several major metropolitan areas. Politically-charged calls to defund police also continue to spur sales.
This is also an election year and firearm sales typically rise during presidential election years. However, this year, Democratic candidates Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) are calling for stringent gun control measures, including forcible confiscation, banning entire classes of firearms from lawful possession, licensing schemes and repealing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which would expose the firearm industry to frivolous and harassing lawsuits.
Each month since March, NSSF-adjusted NICS background checks have set a record as the strongest ever recorded for that month.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
Gun safety used to be handed down through the generations, but no longer.
Knowledge and know-how have gone by the wayside. Who’s going to teach this new generation of gun owners that heavy responsibility that comes with gun ownership? This forum contributes, but there’s no experience like one on one.
This kind of news drives the anti-gun folks crazy, I love it!
Too bad that ammo is so hard to find…….New owners need practice…
Hope all those new gun owners get out and vote or Biden/Harris will be there to take those new guns away
I’m pleased to see the numbers for black Americans increasing so much. General gun ownership will help reduce black-on-black gun violence.
And hopefully all of these new owners know the difference between the “right to bear arms” and the responsibility to legally use them. Even most introductory courses on gun handling spend way too little time on the legal definition and use of “deadly force” – and when, in your state or locality, you can and cannot use it. Most gun owners have little understanding of the legal implications of “immediate and unavoidable” when applied to a situation, “intent”, “means”, “opportunity” when applied to a potential target, or “a reasonable person would conclude” when applied to the owner. These are not… Read more »
Now they need to vote accordingly to keep that right.
While not directly related to this article this news item gives a glimpse into the future for a number of those “first time gun owners.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/6-year-old-baltimore-boy-accidentally-shot-by-woman-trying-to-empty-gun-police-say/ar-BB18mJ4x