By Paul Bedard – Washington Examiner
The end of July marked the latest record in United States firearms sales — 48 straight months of one million or more gun purchases.
The just released FBI tally of background checks showed another sky-high number of 1,987,650, down a bit from July 2022, but still more than 19 of the other 24 years the system has been in operation.
When adjusted just for likely sales of firearms, it was 1,023,903.
“July 2023 marks the 48th month in a row, 4 years, that has exceeded 1 million adjusted background checks in a single month,” said the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade group for the industry.
Mark Oliva, the NSSF spokesman, said the long stretch of likely gun sales is unlike anything the nation has ever seen and has been fueled by politics and safety.
“This is a remarkable milestone of four continuous years of over 1 million background checks for the sale of a firearm. That’s no small achievement and is indicative of the strong and sustained appetite for law-abiding Americans to take ownership of their Second Amendment rights,” Oliva said.
“This milestone was achieved in the midst of the continuous attacks by the Biden administration, which has demonstrated nothing but contempt for the Second Amendment and has twisted the levers of government to impede the ability of law-abiding citizens to legally possess firearms of their choosing. Americans are sending a clear signal each and every month. The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is not up for negotiation,” Oliva added.
While surveys have shown that many gun owners have more than one firearm, the numbers also reinforce reports that more women, blacks and urban dwellers are buying arms for the first time as crime surges in America’s cities.
A new study of gun ownership highlighted over the weekend by Secrets, for example, suggested that up to 60% of Americans likely own guns, twice what pollsters have found.
The Rutgers University study said that it is common for gun owners to lie to pollsters, and deny they have any.