December sees 9.9% increase in firearms sales checks over same month last year

The FBI has released its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figures for December 2010. NSSF-adjusted figures (1,133,371) show a 9.9 percent increase over NSSF-adjusted figures from December 2009 (1,031,344).

For calendar year 2010, the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 9,436,182 is a decrease of 1 percent over the NSSF-adjusted figure of 9,534,131 in calendar year 2009. In comparison, the unadjusted NICS figure of 14,320,489 for calendar year 2010 is an increase 2.4 percent over the unadjusted NICS figure of 13,984,953 in calendar year 2009.

The adjusted NICS data were derived by NSSF by subtracting out NICS purpose-code permit checks used by several states such as Kentucky and Utah for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases. Though not a direct correlation to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data provide a more accurate picture of current market conditions.