The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported that the July 2023 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure declined 17.0 percent year-over-year to 1,023,903 checks.
NSSF said the July 2023 number marks the 48th month consecutively that the NICS figure had exceeded one million adjusted background checks in a single month.
The unadjusted July 2023 FBI NICS figure of 1,987,650 reflects a 15.7 percent year-over-year decrease from July 2022.
Twenty-four states in the U.S. have at least one qualified alternative permit, which, under the Brady Act, allows the permit holder, who has undergone a background check to obtain a permit, to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer without a separate additional background check for that transfer. The number of NICS checks in these U.S. states does not include these legal transfers based on qualifying permits, and the NSSF does not adjust for these transfers.
The adjusted NICS data comes from subtracting NICS purpose code permit checks and permit rechecks used by states for CCW permit application checks and checks on active CCW permit databases. NSSF started subtracting the permit rechecks in February 2016.
The statistics represent the number of firearm background checks initiated through the NICS. They do not represent the number of firearms sold or sales dollars. Based on varying state laws, local market conditions and purchase scenarios, a one-to-one correlation between a firearm background check and a firearm sale cannot be made.
Photo courtesy NSSF
