According to the FBI, over 1.5 million background checks were run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) on customers looking to purchase firearms last December, which is a record high! Almost 500,000 of those checks occurred during the six days before Christmas. It looks like some people got a good Christmas gift!
Some speculate that President Obama played a role of this and some even call him the “best gun salesman of all time.” The FBI reported a 49 percent rise in NICS background checks during the 2008 election week compared to the same week in 2007. This is not the start of the rise in gun sales. According to Field and Stream Editorial Director Anthony Licata, “gun sales have been up significantly over the past 9 years.”
Recently when I have gone to purchase a new firearm, they have been backordered, and I had to wait up to 3 months. That may be because of an increased demand for firearms over the past decade. U.S. handgun production has tripled over the past 9 years, and firearm productions are up over 2 million units in those years, according to Fox Business.
Author: Terry Pretzloff