Taking Stock of Record-Setting 2020 Firearm Year – IOTW Report

Taking Stock of Record-Setting 2020 Firearm Year

Twenty-one million. Let that number sink in for a moment.

Guns in the news:

That’s a very big number. If I told you at SHOT Show® last year that the industry would see 21 million background checks for the sale of a firearm in 2020, you would have thought I was crazy. One year later and with the benefit of hindsight, this was truly a remarkable year for the industry across the board.

The final figures for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) put all of this year’s hard work into perspective. Twenty-one million background checks were conducted for the sale of a firearm over the past 12 months. That topped 2019’s totals of 13.2 million by 60 percent. It also shattered the previous record from 2016, when 15.7 million background checks were conducted for the sale of firearms. This year’s 21 million total surpassed 2016 by 5.3 million, or 34 percent.

Here’s one more incredible number to witness. NSSF estimates that 8.4 million people bought a firearm for the first time in 2020. That’s 40 percent of all purchases. This year’s buyer is increasingly diverse too. Forty percent of 2020’s buyers were women and the biggest increase of any demographic category was among African Americans, who bought guns at a rate of 58 percent greater than in 2019. more

23 Comments on Taking Stock of Record-Setting 2020 Firearm Year

  1. Anonymous
    I think only one side of the political isle knows how to use them.
    “Owning a gun doesn’t make you a shooter any more than owning a piano makes you a musician”….Col. Jeff Cooper

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  2. “I think only one side of the political isle knows how to use them.”

    That kind of thinking is what results in overconfidence, and overconfidence when it comes to guns is what results in losing a gunfight.

    Never, never underestimate your enemy or his ability, that’s how you lose in any conflict.

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  3. Happiness is having everything you think you could want or need before turning in your FFL. Then realizing a few years later that your supply of “components” is perhaps lacking. Then remedy that only to be inundated by “Could you let me have 10K primers, etc.”

    May I not regret…

    For those times that I have succumbed to giving loading supplies (not selling), I hope they honor the request to return/repay equal amount when supply chain catches up. If not maybe I have enough…

    If you didn’t supply up after the last ammo shortage of a few years back, you’re lacking in cognitive function.

    3
  4. Same in NE Lowell.

    A couple of months ago, I bought 2 online at once. 30 minutes later they said my order was ready for pickup. Walked in, showed ccw and drivers license, filled out a couple of forms and out the door in 10 minutes.

  5. @Anon
    You really think only one side of the political aisle is buying guns?

    Only ONE side of the aisle knows which END the bullet comes out of. And it’s NOT the side that’s uncertain which bathroom to use in public…

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