That number is a million more than recorded by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The industry trade association reported 16.4 weapons sold during 2022.
That pace kept going in 2023 with roughly 1.4 million weapons being sold each month thus far. Clearly, and despite the best efforts of numerous detractors, the Second Amendment is alive and well!
Sales of firearms continue to be strong, as shown by the nonprofit organization The Trace, which tracks “gun violence.” Its figures show that annual gun sales nearly double the totals from 15 to 20 years ago.
The conclusions by SafeHome were reached by accessing FBI data on background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The statistical model counts every long gun and handgun check 1.1 times and multiple gun NICS queries as two sales.
This calculation does not consider NICS checks for concealed carry permits and other non-firearm purchase instances.
Examination of the results showed that Texas, Florida, and California residents purchased the most firearms in 2022. The Lone Star State led all 50 states with 1,452,990 total sales.
These, of course, are heavily populated states. Breaking down the numbers per capita showed a much different result for total gun sales. Leading the way was Alaska with 872 guns per 10,000 residents 21 or over. Montana trailed in second place with 830 per 10,000 and Wyoming was third with 806.
The upward pace of gun sales hit high gear during the troubled pandemic era as figures from The Trace showed over 15 million Americans bought weapons for the first time. In fact, between 2020 and 2022 there were nearly 60 million guns sold in the nation.
Experts report people are buying weapons categorized as “defensive” more than ever. John Roman is a senior fellow in the Economics, Justice and Society Group at NORC, a research group at the University of Chicago. He noted the shift from generations past.
“It’s a totally different type of gun ownership now. It’s not a rifle stored away somewhere that you take out twice a year to go hunting.” Instead, Americans are purchasing handguns that are kept in a bedside table or glove compartment.
And with the proliferation of constitutional carry states after the landmark Supreme Court Bruen decision, more Americans are taking their guns with them for protection.
The National Rifle Association used social media during the pandemic to spread a brilliant message warning of the dangers of stockpiling without the means to protect it. The video showed a woman holding a rifle and speaking of defending your property.
“You might be stockpiling up on food right now to get through this current crisis. But if you aren’t preparing to defend your property when everything else goes wrong, you’re really just stockpiling for somebody else.”
Of course, anti-gun zealots called the ad fearmongering, but the message was true and obviously rang clear to many Americans. How much so? The pandemic saw the percentage of people living in homes with firearms increase to 46% from the 32% level of 2010.
Further, between March 2020 and March 2022, NORC reported that 18% of the nation’s households purchased weapons.
Roman noted that the demographic of gun purchasers during the pandemic also shifted. Of the 5% of Americans who reported buying firearms for the first time, he said they “were younger, they were more likely to be renters, they were more likely to be women, they were more likely to be people of color.”
