Tipsheet

Whoa: We Now Know How Many Guns Were Purchased In January

Beth Baumann
Beth Baumann  |  February 01, 2021 9:10 PM

Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the White House. One of their top priorities, outside of another coronavirus relief package, is pushing a radical gun control agenda. Once again, Americans are rejecting that policy position and showing support for the Second Amendment, as evidenced by the latest numbers released from the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

The FBI conducted 4.31 million background checks in the month of January, its highest on record since November 1998.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms industry trade association, adjusted the numbers to get a better idea of how many background checks were conducted solely for firearm purchases. It pulls out background checks used to obtain a qualified alternative permit, which allows a permit holder to purchase a firearm without additional background checks. As of now, 25 states allow such a permit under the Brady Act. 

The number of NICS checks solely for the purpose of purchase was 2.05 million, a 75 percent increase over January 2020's number of 1.17 million. 

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, NICS checks have dramatically increased over the same time period in 2019. There are multiple reasons for that: one is Americans received their stimulus checks and the other is the number of riots that took place this summer.

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According to Mark Oliva, the NSSF's Director of Public Affairs, the Biden administration and their anti-gun stance have fueled Americans' purchasing decisions, especially when it comes to firearms.

"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," Oliva said in a statement. "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."

Oliva also cited Biden's promise to ban or tax and seize modern sporting rifles – commonly referred to as "AR-15 style weapons" – as well as "high capacity" magazines as another reason for the uptick. The administration's failure to even acknowledge or address the BLM/Antifa riots this summer is another.

If anything, this combination of events has Americans rethinking their Second Amendment rights. 

"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," he explained. "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 a jaw-dropping figures to start the New Year. Americans are claiming their Second Amendment rights to provide for their own safety in record numbers."