The FBI completed 3.7 million gun background checks in March, up 41 percent from March 2019 and the highest monthly total since the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) began in 1998.
March’s total easily surpassed the January 2020 and February 2020 counts of 2.7 million and 2.8 million background checks, respectively. It also topped the previous high marks of 3.3 million in December 2015 and 2.9 million in December 2019.
One quarter into this election year, the number of background checks is on pace to surpass last year’s record of 28.4 million background checks. The 2019 total was up 8.4 percent from 2018 and up 3 percent from the previous record set in 2016.
Photo courtesy FBI
