September’s National Instant Check System (NICS) numbers were down from the previous month, and from September 2022, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s “adjusted” numbers confirm the decrease in activity.
The NSSF report was published by The Outdoor Wire.
According to the FBI chart, which is updated monthly, September saw a raw number of 2,104,825 initiated background checks. NSSF adjusts the data by subtracting NICS purpose code permit checks and permit rechecks used by the states for concealed carry permit application checks, plus checks on active carry permits and for September, came up with a total of 2,035,410 checks, of which 1,141,847 are estimated to have been for actual firearm transactions.
According to NSSF, this translates to an 8.2 percent decrease from September 2022 data.
The NSSF notes, “Twenty-four states currently have at least one qualified alternative permit, which under the Brady Act allows the permit-holder, who has undergone a background check to obtain the permit, to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer without a separate additional background check for that transfer. The number of NICS checks in these states does not include these legal transfers based on qualifying permits and NSSF does not adjust for these transfers.”
NSSF has been subtracting permit rechecks from the data since February 2016.
“It should be noted,” NSSF said in a news release, “that these statistics represent the number of firearm background checks initiated through the NICS. They do not represent the number of firearms sold or sales dollars. Based on varying state laws, local market conditions and purchase scenarios, a one-to-one correlation cannot be made between a firearm background check and a firearm sale.”
The NICS system went online in November 1998, and since then 465,388,062 background checks have been initiated. The system was designed to reduce or eliminate the need for waiting periods during which background checks are conducted to determine someone’s eligibility to own a firearm. In recent years, however, gun prohibitionists have been pushing for “expanded background checks” which invariably involve some sort of waiting period, typically 10 days.
