March NICS Show Steady Gun Demand, While NFA Checks Explode More Than 121%

AmmoLand ^ | April 8, 2026 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System numbers for March 2026 are in, and they show the same pattern gun owners and industry watchers have seen before: the raw FBI total and the NSSF-adjusted figure are telling two different stories.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the March 2026 adjusted NICS figure came in at 1,412,917, up 1.9 percent from March 2025. At the same time, the unadjusted FBI total fell to 2,212,094, down 10.5 percent from 2,470,705 a year earlier.

NICS is being used for more and more background checks, which are not directly related to firearm sales. Chief among these are background checks for firearm carry permits and other firearm permits.

As more states have become Constitutional Carry or permitless carry states, and as some states have stopped monthly background checks, the correlation between total NICS background checks and adjusted background checks approximating NICS firearm sales has varied significantly.

Looking at the NICS-adjusted data over the last twelve months from the NSSF, the first quarter (three months) of 2026 is slightly greater than the first quarter of 2025. The difference in the two years is not great, but adjusted sales in the last quarter of 2025 were definitely lower than in the last quarter of 2026.

One of the biggest takeaways from the March release is what is happening in the NFA market. New for 2026, NSSF is now breaking out monthly NFA checks for Form 1 and Form 4 activity. In March, that figure hit 206,871, up 121.2 percent from 93,518 in March 2025. That is a massive year-over-year jump and one more sign that suppressors and other NFA-regulated items are helping drive consumer activity in ways that stand out even within a generally stable gun market.

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: banglist; nfa; nics; sales

[marktwain]

Sales, as measured by the adjusted NICS backgound checks, as up slightly in March. The increase is partly caused by a large surge in National Firearms Act applications/sales.

[rktman]

Guaranteed not all purchasers or NFA seekers are staunch conservatives. 🤔😊👍

[Iron Munro]

WTF?

Trump has already been president 15 months this time around and the ATF still hasn’t been eliminated!

[marktwain]

Simple explanation. President Trump is not a dictator.

[PeterPrinciple]

Trump has already been president 15 months this time around and the ATF still hasn’t been eliminated!

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Again, Instant gratification.

Instant gratification is the desire for immediate satisfaction or pleasure without delay, often leading to impulsive behaviors and short-term rewards at the expense of long-term benefits.

It has taken a generation to get us into this deep crap. The trend has changed. There is movement, base hits on many small fronts but ALL YOU WANT IS HOME RUNS. YOU WANT YOUR LOLLIPOP NOW!!!!

[Organic Panic]

I would never recommend people make their own firearms so the government doesn’t put you on a registry. A person could make an 80% firearm in half an hour with a drill and Dremel tool for about $300. That would be wrong on so many levels.