NICS Numbers and Gun Sales for August 2023, Fifth Highest on Record

The numbers of National Instant Background Checks (NICS) done by the FBI for August of 2023, and the estimated gun sales derived from those checks, are the fifth highest on record for August since records started being kept.

The number of checks done by the FBI was about 2.14 million in August of 2023. The number of gun sales was estimated at 1.06 million, just .27% higher than the estimate for 2019. The gun sales in 2016 were higher, about 1.17 million.

We are seeing a leveling off of gun sales at the new, higher base level of over a million a month. There are about 14 million gun sales per year, on average, for the last five years. Because a significant number of gun sales are of some of the nearly 500 million guns in circulation, the number of firearms added to the private stock in the United States is about 12 million a year, or about 60 million from 2018 through 2022. This year should add close to another 12 million, with the stock well over 500 million by the end of the year.

The number of gun sales increased significantly during and since 2008. Two significant events occurred in 2008, both of which have contributed to incentives to purchase and increased firearms sales.

In 2008, Senator Barack Obama, the most successful gun salesman in history, was elected President of the United States. His ability to foster racial division, turmoil, and a profound distrust of American government and institutions has been unparalleled.

In 2008, the United States Supreme Court started the long process of restoring the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment was first eviscerated in the South in 1876 to prevent recently freed slaves from arming themselves. In Northern states, restrictions emerged for immigrants in New York and California. The Sullivan law in New York the concealed permit law in California, were both aimed at disfavored minorities.

At the end of 2007, the estimated number of guns in private hands in the United States was 301 million. At the end of 2023, 16 years later, the estimated number will be over 501 million.  200 Million firearms have been added to the private stock since Barrack Obama started his run for the presidency.  40% of the private stock in the United States will be less than 17 years old.

Gun owners are estimated to make up between 30 and 60 percent of the adult population. Many of those gun owners are new gun owners.

Once a person owns a gun, they often find they need more than one gun. Once a gun owner has broken through the hype, fear, and social stigma which has dominated the media propaganda for the last 60 years, they no longer fear owning another gun. They often find guns are not only useful, they are fun.

This dynamic has dominated gun sales for 16 years. We are at the point where, when a politically correct Leftist governor of New Mexico attempts to violate the state constitution and the Second Amendment, mass protests arise, police refuse to arrest, and her own party’s Attorney General refuses to prosecute. It is a budding totalitarian’s worst nightmare.

The Second Amendment has more respect now than it has had in the past 60 years.

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.