NICS checks

Uncategorized

House Legislation Filed On Jan. 22nd

January 23, 2013 by

Three more bills dealing with firearms were filed in the House of Representatives yesterday. The first from Pennsylvania Republican Mike Fitzpatrick encourages state’s to provide better records for the NICS system, the second from California Democrat Adam Schiff is an attack on the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, and finally, the third is from Georgia Republican Phil Gingrey which would mandate that the BATFE videotape their tests of firearms and ammunition.

HR 329 – Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
To amend the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 to encourage
States to provide records to the National Instant Background Check
System.
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee


HR 332 – Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA)
Co-Sponsors:
Rep Cartwright, Matthew A. [D-PA] – 1/22/2013
Rep Cicilline, David N. [D-RI] – 1/22/2013
Rep Ellison, Keith [D-MN] – 1/22/2013
Rep Honda, Michael M. [D-CA] – 1/22/2013
Rep McGovern, James P. [D-MA] – 1/22/2013
Rep Meeks, Gregory W. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
Rep Moran, James P. [D-VA] – 1/22/2013
Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC] – 1/22/2013
Rep Serrano, Jose E. [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
Rep Slaughter, Louise McIntosh [D-NY] – 1/22/2013
Rep Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD] – 1/22/2013
To provide victims of gun violence access to the same civil remedies as are available to those injured through other means.
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee

HR 339 – Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA)
Co-Sponsors:
Rep Blackburn, Marsha [R-TN] – 1/22/2013
Rep Roe, David P. [R-TN] – 1/22/2013
Rep Stockman, Steve [R-TX] – 1/22/2013
Rep Westmoreland, Lynn A. [R-GA] – 1/22/2013
To require the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to
make video recordings of the examination and testing of firearms and
ammunition, and for other purposes. 

Referred to the House Judiciary Committee and to the House Ways and Means Committee

Uncategorized

December Adjusted NICS – Just As Suspected

January 9, 2013 by 7 Comments

The National Shooting Sports Foundation released their adjusted NICS check numbers for the month of December and they are almost off the charts.

Above is the graph of the NSSF-adjusted NICS checks for the last 13 Decembers. The only decrease over the previous since Obama was first elected is December 2009. That probably was reflective of the surge the prior year.

Here are the numbers as reported by NSSF:

The December 2012 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 2,237,731 is an increase of 58.6 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,410,937
in December 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted December 2012 NICS
figure of 2,776,105 reflects a 49.7 percent increase from the unadjusted
NICS figure of 1,854,400 in December 2011.

December 2012 also marked the 31st straight month with increases over the same month in the prior year.

 It is important to note that NICS checks are not a perfect correlation with gun sales. States such Iowa, Michigan, and Kentucky use the NICS system for background checks on both new and existing concealed carry permits. Moreover, in a number of states such as North Carolina, a concealed carry permit is accepted in lieu of running the NICS check.

For the entire year 2012, adjusted NICS checks were up 27.7% over 2011.

Uncategorized

NICS Checks In December Hit All-Time High

January 2, 2013 by 3 Comments

While these are the gross numbers and not the NSSF-adjusted NICS check numbers, the FBI reported today that it processed 2.78 million NICS checks during the month of December. According to the story in Reuters, this represents a 39% increase over the month of November which had been the previous all time high.

These NICS check numbers are also up 49% over last December.

Consumer demand for guns appears to have accounted for the uptick in activity. There were no changes in FBI background check procedures that would have affected the December numbers, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said.

December is typically the busiest month of the year for checks, however, due in part to Christmas gift sales.

The figures do not represent the number of firearms sold, a statistic the government does not track. They also do not reflect activity between private parties, such as family members or collectors, because federal law requires background checks only for sales from commercial vendors with a federal license.

Someone who passes a background check is eligible to buy multiple firearms.

FBI checks for all of 2012 totaled 19.6 million, an annual record and an increase of 19 percent over 2011.

I don’t think this will come as a surprise to anyone who
has been to a gun shop, big box store, or any other place that sells
firearms in the past two to three weeks. I know my visits to two local
WalMart stores in western North Carolina showed them to be cleaned out
of virtually everything except 2-3 rimfire rifles and a couple of
shotguns. Rifle ammo was non-existent except in .30-30 or esoteric
calibers like .300 Winchester Short Magnum while the only pistol ammo
was in .380 ACP, .38 Special, and .44 Magnum. At least the run on .380
ACP of a few years ago is over.

Reuters attributes much of the increase to the Newtown tragedy and the resultant call by the gun prohibitionists for gun bans and magazine bans. I’m sure this is at least partially correct. I’d like to see – and I don’t know if it is available – a day by day record of NICS checks for the month of December. That would empirically confirm what we think is happening.

Once NSSF releases their numbers, I’ll be posting them as well.

Uncategorized

November NICS Checks Set All Time Record

December 4, 2012 by 1 Comment

In not unexpected news, the National Shooting Sports Foundation is reporting that the NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System total hit an all-time high in November 2012. This follows on the heels of the announcement that Black Friday was also a record breaker. The previous high had been December 2011.

The November 2012 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,525,177 is an increase of 38.5 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,101,076 in
November 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted November 2012 NICS figure
of 1,997,703 reflects a 30.8 percent increase from the unadjusted NICS
figure of 1,527,454 in November 2011.

This marks the 30th straight month in which the NICS checks have surpassed the number in the same month of the prior year. You can see this trend in the NSSF chart below of adjusted NICS checks for the past 12 months.

 If you want to see the impact of the election and re-election of Barack Obama has played on these numbers, examine the chart below.  November 2008 and November 2012 are significantly higher than the other months of November since the year 2000.

It should be remembered that these NICS checks do not have a direct correlation with sales though they are indicative of sales trends. States such as Kentucky, Iowa, and Michigan use the NICS checks for background checks on those applying for concealed carry permits as well as to check on active CCW holders. Furthermore, as readers pointed out on my Black Friday sales post, in many states including North Carolina holders of concealed carry permits are exempted from the NICS background check.

Uncategorized

243,292

November 27, 2012 by 3 Comments

That is the number of point-of-sale NICS checks that were performed on Friday and Saturday combined. The NSSF is reporting that the number of NICS checks on the day after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday”, set the all-time one-day record of 154,873.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving also made the list of top ten highest days coming in at number six.

With regard to the numbers, NSSF points out:

That total was nearly 20 percent more than the previous high of 129,166 set on Black Friday last year. Since a federal background check is mandatory for every firearm sold at retail, background check activity serves as an indicator of retail gun sales.

They attribute the high sales to Obama’s reelection, an increase in hunting license sales, and the fact that more and more Americans are taking responsibility for the safety of their families as well as themselves.

Since these numbers are strictly from point-of-sales, it will be interesting to see how the gun prohibitionists try to spin this.

Uncategorized

Black Friday Gun Sales Crash NICS

November 25, 2012 by 7 Comments

According to a story in the Bangor (ME) Daily News, the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System or NICS suffered intermittent outages on Black Friday due to call volume. A number of Bangor-area firearms dealers reported trouble with the system which caused them to lose sales. While a number of their customers were local, a good proportion were from the more rural areas of Maine and made a special trip into the Bangor-Brewer area just to purchase a firearm.

The FBI confirmed the outage to the newspaper.


Black Friday sales played a role in the problems with NICS, the director of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division said, responding to an email from the Bangor Daily News.


“The NICS has experienced intermittent outages today due to high call volumes,” Stephen G. Fischer Jr. said at about 2:15 p.m.


Lozier, who has worked at Van Raymond’s for more than a decade, said the outages cost him at least half a dozen customers by the time the business day was only half over.


“If we can’t call it in, we can’t sell a gun,” Lozier said. “It’s cost us some money.”

This report of high sales and resultant outages on the East Coast correlates with what Dave Workman was finding in Washington State. 


Friday may have broken records for gun sales across the country, and for background checks with the National Instant Check System (NICS), and gun dealers here in the Pacific Northwest were definitely along for the ride.

Examiner checked with Wade’s Indoor Gun Range in Bellevue and learned that there were times during the day when sales clerks simply could not get through to the NICS headquarters to conduct the necessary background checks.

It was the same story from Robin Ball, proprietor at Spokane’s Sharp Shooting Indoor Range, who told this column that “We had guns (and paperwork) stacked up…and we were doing speed dialing to finally get through.” When they did, she noted, clerks would have to do several checks at a time. She noted that Wednesday was also busy.

Ball said that NICS access began improving Friday afternoon as East Coast and central-U.S. gun shops began closing for the day.

I can’t wait to see the NSSF-adjusted NICS statistics for November. I think you are going to see records broken yet again.

Uncategorized

27 Months And Counting

September 10, 2012 by

I missed posting on this last week but the NSSF-adjusted NICS checks show a 27th straight month of increases compared to the same month in the prior year.

The August 2012 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,042,924 is an increase of 27.8 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 815,858 in August 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted August 2012 NICS figure of 1,514,696 reflects a 16.5 percent increase from the unadjusted NICS figure of 1,300,433 in August 2011.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, this is the highest August on record.

As I note when reporting these figures each month, there is not a direct correlation between sales and NICS checks for a variety of reasons. The primary one is that a number of states such as Kentucky, Iowa, and Michigan use it for CCW purposes For example, as one reader pointed out to me last month, the Commonwealth of Kentucky runs a NICS check on each and every carry licensee monthly. Moreover, in many states, a concealed carry license substitutes for a NICS check. Thus, purchases by these CCW holders are not counted in the NICS check totals.

Nonetheless, the rise in NICS checks does show the broader trends in the firearm marketplace.

Uncategorized

And The Beat Goes On

August 7, 2012 by 4 Comments

The NSSF-adjusted NICS figures for July were released yesterday and the beat goes on. July 2012 marks the 26th straight month in which the NICs figures have increased over the same period in the previous year.

The July 2012 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 853,355 is an increase of 25.5 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 680,258 in July 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted July 2012 NICS figure of 1,289,585 reflects an 12.4 percent increase from the unadjusted NICS figure of 1,147,355 in July 2011.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation adjusts the raw numbers to take out the uses of the NICS for CCW permit checks. States such as Kentucky, Iowa, and Michigan use the NICS system for the background check before they issue their concealed carry permits.

NSSF is always careful to note that there is not a perfect correlation between NICS figures and firearms sales. However, they do provide a useful indication of the direction of the market. In this case, as it has been for the past 26 months, the direction is up.

Uncategorized

25 Months And Counting

July 10, 2012 by

June 2012 marks the 25th straight month in which the number of NICS checks made during the month surpassed the number from the prior year.

Graphic by NSSF

From NSSF:

The June 2012 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 846,437 is an increase of 24.5 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 679,840 in June 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted June 2012 NICS figure of 1,290,210 reflects an 11.4 percent increase from the unadjusted NICS figure of 1,157,714 in June 2011.

Graphic by NSSF

As the NSSF noted, June 2012 was a 24.5% increase over June 2011. However, the difference between June 2012 and the earlier years is very significant. June 2009 and 2010 look to have about 600,00 adjusted NICS checks or a quarter-million less than this year. That is a large difference!

It should be noted that NICS checks are not a perfect correlation with firearms sales but are a strong indication of general trends in firearm sales. Some states such as Kentucky, Iowa and Michigan use the NICS system for their CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW holders. Conversely, in states such as North Carolina where the Concealed Handgun Permit is an approved substitute for a NICS check, purchases by permit holders will not be counted.

I don’t think we can know conclusively if this continuing trend in the increase of NICS checks is due to the fear of an Obama reelection or just the rise of Gun Culture v2.0. I do know that strong sales have been reflected in the stock prices of companies like Smith and Wesson. Today, the stock hit a 52-week high at $9.50 per share which reflects a four-fold increase in share price.

Uncategorized

24 Months And Counting

June 5, 2012 by 5 Comments

May marked the 24th straight month in which the NSSF-adjusted NICS checks were greater than the same period in the year before. While not a perfect correlation with gun sales, the NICS checks are indicative of the direction of the firearms market and the associated sales. The NSSF adjusts the gross NICS checks by dropping out the checks from Michigan, Kentucky, and Iowa that are used for CCW permit application purposes as well as those from checks on active CCW permits.

The May 2012 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 840,412 is an increase of 20.6 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 696,947 in May 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted May 2012 NICS figure of 1,305,392 reflects a 7.0 percent increase from the unadjusted NICS figure of 1,219,872 in May 2011.

May 2012 also marks the highest number of NICS checks for the month of May over the last 13 years. It is almost double what is was in the year 2000.

One often cited reason for the growth in NICS checks – and presumably gun sales – is the fear of an Obama re-election. However, I tend to agree with Michael Bane who has argued that the growth in sales is more a reflection of the growth of Gun Culture v.2.0 and the new entrants to gun ownership especially for personal defense.

While the presidential election is rather tight, it is not a runaway in favor of Obama and the latest Rasmussen daily poll actually puts Romney in the lead. Nonetheless, if it looks like Obama is solidly in the lead come September and October, I think then it will be Katie bar the door for gun and ammo sales. I really hope it doesn’t come to that.