The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported that January 2018 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was down 8 percent versus the year ago.

The figure came to 955,466 versus 1,038,365 in January 2017. For comparison, the unadjusted January 2018 FBI NICS figure of 1,996,721 reflects a 1.7 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,032,108 in January 2017.

The adjusted NICS data were derived by subtracting out NICS purpose code permit checks and permit rechecks used by several states such as Connecticut, Illinois and Utah for CCW permit application checks, as well as checks on active CCW permit databases. NSSF started subtracting permit rechecks in February 2016.