February 2nd, 2021

Gun Sales Spike — NICS Checks Up 75% in January 2021 vs. 2020

With the Democratic Party taking control of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, and the White House, smart Americans know that aggressive, unconstitutional gun control measures are going to be pushed over the next few years in Washington. There is already a bill, H.R. 127, that would require all gun owners to have a Federal License, to pay $800 annual insurance, and to make the type and location of their guns a matter of public record. (See H.R. 127 Video below). And both President Biden and VP Kamala Harris have said they wish to restrict semi-auto rifles, possibly even with mandatory confiscation.

Given this new political environment, it’s no surprise that Americans are rushing to gun stores in droves. And they are buying vast quantities of firearms of all types — pistols, rifles, and shotguns. There were over 2 million NICS-adjusted gun buyer background checks in January 2021. That’s an increase of 75% compared to January 2020.*

“Americans are continuing to purchase firearms at a blistering pace. That’s undoubtedly connected to President Joe Biden’s plans to attack the firearm industry.

Americans are claiming their Second Amendment rights to provide for their own safety in record numbers.” — NSSF

The NSSF Comments: “January’s NICS figures clearly spell out that the demand of law-abiding Americans to purchase firearms isn’t abating. It is growing. Three of the top 10 weeks and one top 10 single day for the highest number of FBI NICS background checks occurred in January. Taken into context that all but one of the top 10 weeks and four other top 10 single-day records occurred during the 2020, when 21 million background checks were conducted, these are jaw-dropping figures to start the New Year.”

Analysis from Mark Oliva, NSSF Director of Public Affairs:
It can’t be discounted that many of these background checks for the purchase of a firearm are attributed to threats by the Biden administration to enact the most radical and far-reaching gun control agenda ever proposed. Americans are continuing to purchase firearms at a blistering pace. That’s undoubtedly connected to President Joe Biden’s plans to attack the firearm industry by undoing and rewriting regulations and executive actions to target the firearm industry, which started with freezing the publication of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s “Fair Access” banking rule. The Biden administration interfered with an independent government agency to further an agenda and perpetuate the illegal Operation Choke Point by farming it out to corporate banks. That was just the opening salvo.

Mental Lapses by Joe Biden: In the South Carolina Presidential Debate, Biden stated that 150 million Americans have been killed by firearms since 2007. That was completely wrong (it would be roughly 45% of the U.S. population). Biden’s defenders claimed it was a simply an over-statement. At best this stupid error shows that Biden is totally misinformed about gun issues. At worst it shows that 78-year-old Biden is suffering from senile dementia.

President Biden [has also] promised to pursue the repeal of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), weaponize the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to revoke licenses for minor clerical errors and ban entire classes of firearms from lawful ownership and tax or seize modern sporting rifles (MSRs), or AR-15 style rifles, and magazines in a scheme that would cost those owners an estimated $34 billion for the privilege to own what they already lawfully own.

And the NSSF notes that while the Biden Admininistration is 100% committed to attacking the rights of law-abiding firearms owners, that same administration “has yet to put forth a single proposal to tackle the crime, lawlessness, rioting and looting that has plagued this nation for the year.” Violence and rioting in the name of “equity” and a socialist agenda seem to be fine with Biden, Harris and their advisors.

H.R. 127 — Nightmare Bill Could Destroy Second Amendment

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* For comparison, the unadjusted January 2021 FBI NICS figure 4,288,240 reflects a 61.7 percent increase from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,652,263 in January 2020. Though not a direct correlation to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data provide an additional picture of current market conditions. It should be noted that these statistics represent the number of firearm background checks initiated through the NICS. They do not represent the number of firearms sold or sales dollars. Based on varying state laws, local market conditions and purchase scenarios, a one-to-one correlation cannot be made between a firearm background check and a firearm sale.