2015 Record Year for Firearms Sales and NICS Background Checks

By Dean Weingarten

2015 was a record year for the National Instant Checks System (NICS) and firearm sales. The previous record year was in 2013, another year in which President Obama put considerable effort into passing strict gun control laws . . . and failed. In 2013, there were 21,093,271 background checks completed via NICS, according to the FBI. That amounted to 16,031,210 additional private firearms sold, according to the ATF. The numbers for 2015 NICS checks are now in and the 2013 totals were exceeded . . .

by a full 10 percent. There were 23,141,970 NICS background checks completed in 2015, with eight of the 12 months marking all-time records. As usual, December racked up the greatest number of NICS checks with 3,314,594.

NICS background checks don’t represent a one-to-one correspondence to increases in the private stock of firearms. Some NICS checks are performed for used guns. Some are completed for people obtaining a concealed carry permit, who aren’t necessarily purchasing a gun. Once people obtain a carry permit, most don’t need to go through the NICS system again if they purchase a gun. Also, several guns can be purchased by an individual on one NICS check.

Still, there is a high correlation between …Read the Rest

Source:: Truth About Guns