The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported that the November 2023 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) number increased by 5.0 percent, its second consecutive positive month. Checks amounted to 1,519,524 in November compared to the November 2022 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,519,524.
The NSSF said that November 2023 number was the third-highest November on record and marked the 52nd month in a row that it exceeded one million adjusted background checks in a single month. For comparison, the unadjusted November 2023 FBI NICS figure of 2,594,906 reflected a 5.6 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,747,862 in November 2022.
The November improvement followed a gain of 8.2 percent in October after five months of declines. Background checks declined 8.2 percent in September, 13.0 percent in August, 17.0 percent in July, 19.6 percent in June, and 0.1 percent in May.
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. The NSSF started subtracting permit rechecks in February 2016.
The statistics represent the number of firearm background checks initiated through the NICS system and do not represent the number of firearms sold or sales dollars.
