2015 Record Year for Gun Sales
According to data from the FBI, multiple records for gun sales were made last year. The FBI publishes numbers of National Instant Criminal Background Checks (NICS) completed each month. It is important to note that not all firearm sales include NICS background checks and not all NICS background checks indicate a gun sale. It is, however, a strong indicator of gun sales.
The numbers may not be absolute, but they are relative. This means that a few more or less guns may have been sold than the number of background checks. However, if the number of NICS checks has increased by a certain percentage, it is safe to assume that the number of firearm sales has also increased by that amount.
According to the NICS data, each of the last eight months of 2015 had more sales than any previous year for that month. This steady increase in sales, breaking previously amazing records, culminated in December 2015 being the month in which the most guns were sold of any month in any year! Over 3.3 million NICS background checks were conducted in December 2015 alone! 2013 was a big record-year for the firearm industry with 21 million NICS checks. The 2015 numbers have surpassed that number with 23 million NICS checks!
This is great news for the firearm industry!