Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- A new report posted by 24/7 Wall Street says U.S. gun sales are continuing at a healthy, albeit slower pace than in 2021, leaving gun prohibitionists asserting the Second Amendment “should be adjusted to modern-day realities.”
The report was accompanied by a roundup—based on raw National Instant Check System (NICS) data for the first eight months of this year—of the states, from the lowest to the highest number of presumed gun sales. Hawaii is at the bottom of the heap with only 12,669 NICS checks from January through August, while Illinois is at the top with 2,771,745 checks.
However, raw data does not translate to completed gun sales. Even the FBI, which runs the NICS system, always posts a caveat in its monthly updates that the numbers “do not represent the number of firearms sold.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation makes an “adjustment” of the data each month to more closely reflect the estimated number of actual gun sales. Where the August raw figure of 2,518,137 NICS checks were initiated, according to the FBI chart, the NSSF-adjusted figure for gun-related checks was 1,286,816, which is still a lot of gun sales.
As noted by NSSF’s Mark Oliva, “August’s figures show there is a clear and steady desire by the American public for lawful firearm ownership. Consistently throughout the year, background check figures for firearm sales at retail have put 2022 on pace to be the third strongest year, behind only the outsized years witnessed in 2020 and 2021.
“August’s figures of 1,286,816 background checks was slightly ahead of July’s that came in at 1,233,115,” he continued. “This also marks 37 months straight of background checks exceeding 1 million. Americans are choosing their gun rights by the millions each month while gun control politicians talk only of efforts to deprive them of their Constitutional rights. They are voting with their wallets.
“Politicians would be wise to heed to will of Americans lawfully exercising their Constitutional rights and instead focus their efforts on locking up criminals that misuse firearms,” Oliva concluded via email.
Perhaps nowhere else could Oliva’s words have more weight than out in Washington State, where the Department of Licensing reported another eye-popping jump in the number of active concealed pistol licenses in a single month. For the second time this year, the agency reported a spike of more than 10,000 active CPLs.
August saw 13,293 additional CPLs in Washington, bringing the total to a remarkable 667,260 licenses. In the smallest state west of the Mississippi, with a recent history of voting “blue” due to the liberal politics of far-left Seattle and the Puget Sound Basin, there are a lot of legally-armed citizens, somewhere between 9 and 10 percent of the qualified adult population.
The record was set back in April 2013, when 13,932 CPLs were issued. Back in June of this year, the licensing agency reported an increase of 11,292 CPLs.
According to the 24/7 Wall Street report, Washington came in 12th so far this year for NICS checks, posting 506,674 during the first eight months of the year. While this doesn’t mean that many guns were actually purchased, it does translate to lots more people buying guns.
How that may affect the Nov. 8 election remains a matter of speculation, but Washington is overdue for a political earthquake, with a third-term far-left Democrat governor who wants to follow California’s Gavin Newsom in banning sales of new gas-powered vehicles in the next decade. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, whose green agenda presidential campaign crashed after barely getting off the ground in 2019, is also a gun prohibition proponent who wants to ban so-called “assault weapons.”
The 24/7 Wall Street report listed the top ten states for background checks so far this year, according to its data. Illinois is followed by Kentucky (2,681,745), Texas (1,130,588), Florida (988,563), California (951,008), Pennsylvania (810,491), Indiana (789,792), Utah (678,238), Minnesota (598,080) and lastly, Tennessee (548,996).
For the first eight months of this year, the FBI/NICS chart shows 20,790,489 background checks were initiated. “That is down sharply from 27,841,119 in the same period last year and breaks several years of upward trend,” the story said.
Thanks to a Supreme Court that seems to understand the Second Amendment, and a president who doesn’t, according to many grassroots activists, the trend should continue.