NICS: March 2023 is fourth-highest March for gun sales, background checks

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) gun sales and background checks for March 2023 are the fourth-highest on record since recording of background checks started in 1999. In March 2023, there were about 1.51 million gun sales and about 3.04 million background checks total. Having about half of background checks done for gun sales falls well within the expected range in recent years. In some instances, gun sales have been less than 40% of total background checks done in a month.

The highest number of gun sales recorded in March was in 2020, with about 2.37 million. Then next=highest was in 2021, with about 2.00 million gun sales. The third-highest was in 2022, with about 1.62 million guns sold. March of 2023 had about 1.51 million gun sales, and March of 2013 had about 1.47 million gun sales. The reader can easily see the trend. Gun sales have reached a “new normal” in the last few years.

The number of background checks done shows a similar pattern. 2020, 2021 and 2022 all had more background checks done than in 2023. The first quarter of 2023 shows a bit over four million guns sold through the NICS system. From previous years, we can estimate about 87% of those are new guns, increasing the private stock of firearms in the United States by 3.50 million. At the end of 2022, the number of privately owned firearms was estimated to be about 490 million in the United States. At the end of the first quarter, the number would now be about 493.5 million firearms. Two more quarters of the same growth will bring the estimate to over 500 million privately owned firearms, which is expected to happen by the end of September, 2023.

ICYMI: Effort to require 60% for constitutional changes is essential to gun rights

President Biden continues his lifelong crusade to impose ever more infringements on the rights protected by the Second Amendment. Biden’s term as the president looks more and more like a worse edition of President Obama’s disastrous second term. Increasing racial divisions seems to be a specialty of both President Obama and President Biden. Disastrous international relations have happened during both President Biden’s and President Obama’s second terms. The horror of the “Islamic Spring” occurred with encouragement from President Obama, setting up the disaster of mass Islamic “refugees” in Europe.

The entire Ukraine war seems predicated on the horrible handling of the Afghanistan debacle and the mixed signals sent running up to the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation.

Both of these disasters illustrate to Americans the desirability of possessing arms for the defense of self and community, rights protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

As expected, the number of firearm owners in the United States is increasing. The latest survey of gun owners, by Professor William English, indicates there are about 81.4 million gun owners who were willing to self-identify, as of March of 2021, two years ago. Since that time, about 35 million more firearms have been sold in the United States.

Looking back: NICS showed January 2023 gun sales, background checks tick up year over year

With new gun owners and those who are “shy” about answering surveys, there are likely more than 100 million legal gun owners in the United States, virtually all of whom are legal voters.

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. Republished with permission of AmmoLand.