Free Republic

In June of 2025, gun sales dropped 5% from June of 2024, according to the adjusted National Instant Background Check System (NICS) as calculated by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). The number of adjusted gun sales totaled 1.06 million. This is the 71st month where the adjusted NICS numbers were over a million.The NSSF calculates the adjusted NICS numbers by taking the total number of NICS checks for the month, as supplied by the FBI, then subtracting the number of NICS checks for firearm permits and firearm permit rechecks.May, June, and July tend to be the lowest numbers for...

Real estate investors are snapping up a bigger share of U.S. homes on the market as rising prices and stubbornly high borrowing costs freeze out many other would-be homebuyers. Nearly 27% of all homes sold in the first three months of the year were bought by investors -- the highest share in at least five years, according to a report by real estate data provider BatchData. Between 2020 and 2023, the share of homes bought by investors averaged 18.5%. All told, investors bought 265,000 homes in the January-March quarter, an increase of 1.2% from the same period a year earlier,...

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) numbers are in for May 2025. The adjusted numbers show very little change from May of 2024, only 1.6% lower than May of last year. The number of firearm sales is over a million, as calculated by NSSF. While down from May of 2024, May of 2025 is still the sixth-highest number of firearms sales recorded in the NICS system over the last 26 years. According to the FBI numbers, total NICS background checks in May of 2025 were 2.2% lower than in May of 2024, so both sales and background checks...

Why did the star lot of the spring season, a bronze head by the master sculptor Alberto Giacometti, fail to sell at Sotheby’s? Alberto Giacometti’s 1955 bust, “Grande tête mince" (“Big Thin Head”), carried a pre-sale estimate of $70 million in Sotheby’s Modern evening auction. The auctioneer started the bidding at $59 million dollars. But no one bid - the piece went unsold. It was the second high-profile lot to disappoint in two days. Andy Warhol’s “Big Electric Chair” (1967-68) was withdrawn from Christie’s 20th century evening auction the day before. Is the fine art market in trouble?

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) numbers for firearm sales and background checks in April 2025 continue the slight decline we have been seeing over the last year. April 2025 gun sales were about 3.7% less than those of April 2024. April 2025 background checks were about 3.2% less than those of April 2024.If you look at the last 26 years of April data for adjusted NICS, which is a close approximation of firearm sales, 2025, while lower than the last five years, is close, even a little higher, than the sales seen since the election of Barack Obama...

Sales at Target fell more than expected in the first quarter as the retailer faced boycotts for ditching its DEI efforts and felt the impact of President Trump's tariffs. Target cut its forecast for the rest of the year warning that sales would slip further as its customers pulled back on spending amid an uncertain economic environment. Earlier this year the company conceded to the Trump administrations attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives by scaling back its own efforts. However, the retreat created a fierce customer backlash leading to store boycotts that further damaged sales. Sales for the...

Yesterday, James Comey caused quite the stir when he went on Instagram and posted a picture of a shell formation on the beach — obviously one he made — that spelled out “86 47,” which many interpreted as a threat on President Trump’s life. Since then, everyone’s been arguing over the definition of “86.” As slang goes, it has a wide variety of uses, some of which are more innocent, such as when you run out of a menu item at a restaurant you “86” it or when you get kicked out of a bar for being too drunk or...

As the single largest player in the ecommerce industry, Amazon generates between 10% and 15% of global online sales. In its home market, the US ecommerce giant makes up to 40% of total ecommerce sales and generates the highest revenue in three out of four major product categories, outperforming competitors by a large margin. But ironically, while Amazon is seen as emblematic of American success in ecommerce, Chinese products are the backbone of its marketplace.According to data presented by AltIndex.com, more than 70% of all products sold on Amazon are made in China.

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...

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) for February 2025 shows a drop in both Firearm sales and overall background checks. Firearm sales are down about nine percent from 2024. NICS background checks are down about five percent from February 2024. Handgun and “multiple” sales moved up a bit from January to February while long gun and “other” sales dropped a bit. In the graphic below, the lines are for 2024. The bars are for 2025.President Trump has been in his second term in office for over a month. The rapid pace of corrections produced by the Trump administration signals...

On February 27, 2025, the Kansas Senate voted 39 to 1 to pass a police and firearms sales reform bill. The bill allows police to sell/transfer (trade) forfeited firearms to a federally licensed firearms dealer. From legiscan.com:Session of 2025 SENATE BILL No. 137AN ACT concerning the Kansas standard asset seizure and forfeiture act; relating to the disposition of forfeited property; authorizing the sale or transfer of forfeited firearms to a licensed federal firearms dealer;The Kansas legislature appears to be correcting a weird quirk in Kansas law, K.S.A 60-4117 (5)(b) allowed for four ways to dispose of forfeited firearms:Destroy themUsed for...

Can you remember the last customer service experience that left you fuming? Not too hard, right? We all want to be treated with a level of respect, and with so many people veering on the edge of a boiling rage these days sometimes all it takes is one nasty exchange with a company's representative to send you teetering over the edge. It happened to me recently when I made a call about an item I'd returned to a company for an exchange that had seemed to vanish. The agent on the phone interrupted me repeatedly and was actively unhelpful. Even...

Champagne sales have lost their pop as people around the world aren’t in the mood to say “cheers.” The total number of Champagne shipments from France sank nearly 10% last year to 271 million bottles, marking the second consecutive year of declines as inflation-weary consumers cut back and a generally glum mood permeates across the globe. That’s according to new report from Comité Champagne, a trade association representing more than 16,000 winegrowers and 320 Champagne houses, which painted a dour picture of the industry that aligns with sales of other alcoholic beverages. Maxime Toubart, co-president of the organization, said bluntly...

The trend line of 2024 as the fifth highest for gun sales and National Instant Background Check System (NICS) checks is holding for the year. November 2024 had the sixth-highest gun sales for that month. It was close. November of 2022 had .28% higher numbers. The NICS background checks were the fifth most for the month. November 2020 holds the record for gun sales in the month, with about 3.6 million sold in November 2020.With about 1.48 million gun sales, as recorded by NICS and our estimation process, November of 2024 continues the trend of 63 consecutive months of more...

A few years ago, automakers were celebrating record profits as the pandemic created shortages of new cars, allowing them to raise prices. Now the hangover is setting in. Nissan, the Japanese automaker, is laying off 9,000 employees. Volkswagen is considering closing factories in Germany for the first time. The chief executive of the U.S. and European automaker Stellantis, which owns Jeep, Peugeot, Fiat and other brands, quit after sales tumbled. Even luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz are struggling. Each carmaker has its own problems, but there are some common threads. They include a tricky and expensive technological transition, political...

<p>FORT MYERS, Fla. — Target has failed to persuade a judge in Florida to dismiss a lawsuit that accused the retailer of deceiving shareholders after its sales of LGBTQ-themed merchandise for Pride Month sparked a backlash and a customer boycott.</p>

Despite the never-ending drumbeat that the number of religious "nones" is on the rise and churches are emptying out, there is a curious trend involving Bibles that many religious and social pundits and prognosticators probably didn't see coming: Bible sales are spiking. The Bible has always been a bestseller, but according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Bible sales in the United States saw an increase of 22 percent at the end of October. The WSJ piece attributes the increase to worries about current events, including the recent election that had the entire country, left and right, chain-smoking...

Your long-held suspicions are confirmed, according to a report: Your phone really is listening to you. A marketing firm whose clients include Facebook and Google has privately admitted that it listens to users’ smartphone microphones and then places ads based on the information that is picked up, according to 404 Media. Cox Media Group, the television and radio news conglomerate, admitted in a pitch deck to investors that its “Active Listening” software uses artificial intelligence to “capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations,” according to the report. “Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market...

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) numbers are in for September of 2024. They are slightly higher than those for September of 2023. There have been about two percent more gun sales than in September of 2023 and about three percent more background checks. Those increases are sufficient to place 2024 as the fifth highest September in the 25 years of NICS records, starting in 1999. In 2024, September numbers are about 6 percent lower than they were in August. Handguns are down about 8%, long guns are up about 2 percent. Multiple gun sales are down 2.4% and...

Interest in electric cars has slumped to its lowest level for four years as an increasing number of drivers say they will stick with petrol-powered vehicles. Figures from the Department for Transport show that just 13pc of all drivers plan to buy a fully electric car as their next vehicle. By contrast, interest in combustion-engine cars has risen, with 37pc of motorists saying they will buy a petrol-powered vehicle, up from 31pc a year earlier. The figures represent a new setback to Labour’s plans to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by the end of the decade. The...