The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported that the August 2023 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure declined 13 percent year-over-year to 1.12 million checks year-over-year but was up from 1.02 million checks month-over-month versus July.
NSSF said the August 2023 number marked the 49th month consecutively that the NICS figure had exceeded one million adjusted background checks in a single month.
Guns.com said last month was the fifth-highest August on record regarding federal background checks for gun transfers since the FBI founded the National Instant Criminal Background Check System 25 years ago.
The unadjusted August 2023 FBI NICS figure of 2,047,515 reflects a 16.4 percent year-over-year decrease from August 2022.
The August decrease on an adjusted basis follows declines of 17.0 percent in July, 19.6 percent in June and 0.1 percent in May.
On an adjusted basis, April checks were up 0.7 percent after declining 6.8 percent in March and 0.6 percent in February. January saw an increase of 6.5 percent. In 2022, NSSF’s adjusted NICS checks declined 11 percent to 16.43 million.
