The FBI completed 2.05 million million gun background checks on an NSSF-adjusted basis in January, a surge of 75.2 percent compared to the January 2020 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1.17 million.
For comparison, the unadjusted January 2021 FBI NICS figure 4.29 million reflects a 61.7 percent increase from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2.65 million in January 2020.
NSSF noted that three of the Top 10 weeks and one Top 10 single day for the highest number of FBI NICS background checks occurred in January 2021.
The growth comes as background checks soared in 2020. 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 was a 59.7 percent increase over the 2019 annual total of 13.2 million. The 2020 total was the highest annual total on record, exceeding the previous record of 15.7 million 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.
