The FBI completed 1.91 million gun background checks on an NSSF-adjusted basis in December 2020, a climb of 22.7 percent compared to the December 2019 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1.55 million.
For comparison, the unadjusted December 2020 FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 3.9 million reflects a 34.7 percent increase from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2.0 million in December 2019.
The fourth quarter 2020 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 5.63 million reflects an increase of 40.6 percent over the 4.0 million figure for fourth quarter 2019.
The 2020 annual total of 21.1 million is a 59.7 percent increase over the 2019 annual total of 13.2 million. The 2020 total is now the highest annual total on record, exceeding the previous record of 15,700,471 set in 2016 by 34.3 percent. NSSF estimates that in 2020, over 8.4 million people purchased a gun for the first time, based on retailer surveys.
