The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported that the June 2025 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure slipped 5.1 percent year-over-year, marking the fifth consecutive month of declines.

NSSF-adjusted NICS were 1,004,986, compared to the June 2024 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,059,037. The decline has continued a downward trend since October 2024, except for a slight increase in January 2025.

June still marked the 71st consecutive month of exceeding one million sales-related background checks.

Mark Oliva, the NSSF’s managing director of public affairs, said in a statement, “Background checks in June remained over 1 million, despite the concerns of economic uncertainty and the usual cycle that NSSF sees in decreased background checks during the summer months. That is also against the backdrop of states like Colorado and Oregon, which have enacted or are pursuing laws to make exercising Second Amendment rights more difficult and expensive for law-abiding gun owners.

Rhode Island recently enacted a law to ban the sale of modern sporting rifles (MSRs), which will take effect next year. The firearm industry is grateful for the work the Trump administration is doing to stand strong in defense of Second Amendment rights and the ability for law-abiding citizens to exercise their rights to keep and bear arms,” concluded Oliva.

The adjusted NICS data subtracts out 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 permit rechecks in February 2016.

For comparison, the unadjusted June 2025 FBI NICS figure of 1,909,294 reflects a 2.5 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 1,958,447 in June 2024.

Additional insights on the month-over-month NICS data from GunBroker, NICS Reporting and Analysis (May 2025 data), are available in the member portal under Industry Research.

  • Top 5 States for Adjusted NICS Checks: TX, FL, CA, PA, NC
  • Top 5 States for FBI NICS Handgun Checks: TX, FL, CA, PA, TN
  • Top 5 States for FBI NICS Long Gun Checks: TX, PA, CA, FL, MI

The second-quarter 2024 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 3,250,965 reflects a decrease of 3.4 percent as compared to the second quarter 2024 figure of 3,364,270.

Chart courtesy NSSF