NICS Numbers for March Show Gun Sales Continue to Slide

AmmoLand ^ | April 9, 2025 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The adjusted firearm sales for March 2025 are the eighth highest in the 26-year history of the National Instant Background Check System (NICS), administered by the FBI. The numbers before 2016 are not as accurate because the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) started adjusting the number to account for the large number of firearm permit checks and rechecks in 2016.

No permit rechecks were entered before 2016, and total permit checks were less than 10 million a year. Permit and permit rechecks peaked at about 20 million a year in 2021. Illinois alone had almost 8 million permit and permit rechecks in 2021. In 2022, Illinois reformed its check and recheck law. The number of permit and permit rechecks in Illinois dropped to 4 million.

The 2.58 million NICS checks in March 2025 are the lowest number of checks done in March since March 2017, when the number of checks was 2.43 million.

The adjusted NICS chart for 26 years shows the number of gun sales has been on a downward slide since 2020. The numbers are reasonably high if the 2020 election year and the four years of the Biden administration are seen as an historical anomaly. The perception of losing the Republic to a perpetual “deep state” oligarchy was the greatest in those four years out of the last hundred or more years.

The March 2025 numbers show 68 consecutive months of firearm sales over one million, as adjusted by the NSSF.  Overall firearm sales for March 2025 are about 96% of those a year ago, in March 2024. Handgun sales are down a little, and long gun sales dropped a little more. Sales of “other”, which are believed to primarily be receivers which can be made into either handguns or long guns, dropped about 15%.

[GailA]

ROFLOL. My grandson turned 21 and bought several of them used, with proper paperwork. TN is a Permitless State, and he’s committed no crimes. Works too much, and has a girlfriend who likes guns too. So does his grandama, me.