Firearms background checks, as adjusted by the NSSF, reached 1,011,636 in September against 919,979 in September 2018, a gain of 10.0 percent.
For comparison, the unadjusted September 2019 FBI NICS figure 2,189,028 reflects a 15.5 percent increase from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 1,895,841 in September 2018.
The adjusted NICS data were derived from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) by subtracting out NICS purpose code permit checks and permit rechecks used by states for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases. NSSF started subtracting permit rechecks in February 2016.
September’s growth builds on August’s 15.2 percent gain on an adjusted basis.
Background checks, as adjusted by the NSSF, were up 1.1 percent in July and 0.7 percent in May, following a decline of 6.9 percent in April. Overall, adjusted checks declined 1.2 percent in the second quarter and 8.5 percent in the first quarter.
