Posted October 6, 2018 8:30 am by Comments

By Tom Knighton

We typically use NICS checks as a proxy for how many people buy guns each month. For a while, NICS checks were sky high, which many of us–including me–took to mean that the firearm industry was doing fine.

However, the latest batch of numbers are in, and actual firearm sales hit a seven-year low in September.

Estimated gun sales tumbled by near double digits last month, marking the slowest September since 2011, according to federal data.

Dealers processed nearly 1.9 million applications through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System last month. Estimated gun sales — the sum of transfers in the NICS’s handgun, long gun, multiple and other categories — declined more than 9 percent and totaled just 853,226.

Dealers processed nearly 435,000 applications for handguns and just under 371,000 applications for long guns last month. The latter represents the slowest September ever recorded in nearly two decades of FBI data. Likewise, long gun tallies for July and August sank to 10-year lows, returning to levels not seen since before the election of former President Barack Obama.

Historical patterns for the industry suggest checks and sales will ramp up again as the holiday season nears — typically the busiest time for …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms

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