U.S. Gun Sales Top 1 Million for 34th Straight Month

In a record-breaking trend that appears to have no end in sight, sales of civilian guns have topped 1 million for 34 straight months.

The FBI this week said that background checks for May totaled 2,349,383, the third-highest ever for a May. Of those, industry officials said that about 1,174,791 were directly tied to the sale of a firearm.

“Background checks for firearm sales remain strong. May marks 34 months that background checks for the sale of a firearm exceeded 1 million,” said Mark Oliva, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents gun-makers.

“Americans continue to buy firearms for personal safety. These gun owners are law-abiding Americans who use their firearms for lawful purposes daily,” he added.

If past buying trends hold, the “mass shootings” over the past week in Buffalo, New York, Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, will spark more sales to those looking for self-defense.

Oliva said that those purchasers “reject the attempts by special interest groups to paint them with the same broad brush as those who criminally misuse firearms. The tragic events in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, are sobering reminders that there are those in our society who have no respect for the law or innocent lives. Every law-abiding adult American has the right to defend themselves and their loved ones against that evil.”

Politics is also likely to spark more sales as some Americans grow concerned that President Joe Biden and House Democrats push for bans on AR-15-style rifles and semi-automatic handguns.

And also driving the sales surge has been a national push for dropping requirements for Americans to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Some 25 states have moved to approve “constitutional carry.”

Gun stores claim more customers show up daily looking for self-protection, especially following a publicized shooting or news story about politicians grabbing guns.

Justin Anderson, the marketing director for Hyatt Guns of Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the nation’s biggest and a regular Secrets source of gun sales intelligence, recently told us, “Unprecedented numbers of new gun buyers over the last two years equals more people seeing the lunacy of many of [the] gun laws in this country, including those governing concealed carry. This has strengthened the ranks of pro-gun citizens in this country, and many have been talking [to] their representatives, who have responded by getting rid of permit requirements. As a gun owner, I’m delighted to see the needle moving the other direction regarding our Second Amendment rights. These laws are also good for business, as more law-abiding citizens buy guns. Most importantly, these laws are an exceptional deterrent to violent crime.”