Gun control activists hate gun ownership. “More guns means more violence!,” they shout. They’ll swear up and down that guns cause crime, not deranged and violent people. They push an unending agenda to limit the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans to lawfully purchase and possess firearms.
Gun control activists are in for some bad news: Americans have rejected their anti-gun dogma in a Florida-sized way.
Firearm industry data has revealed something astounding. In a major shift since 2020, a population the size of Florida has become first-time, brand-new gun owners. That’s right – more than 22.3 million people who previously had decided firearm ownership wasn’t for them looked around, decided they didn’t like what they were seeing, jumped off the fence and lawfully purchased a gun at retail.
22.3 million.
One thing’s for sure. Those Americans can make a difference on Election Day.
Backdrop Behind the Numbers
The reasons that led to such a dramatic surge in lawful gun ownership in America over the past three years are well known and understood. It began with COVID-era lockdowns and forced business shutdowns, followed by the “defund the police movement” and soft-on-crime prosecutors who took it easy on repeat violent criminals and an overwhelming feeling that police couldn’t be counted on when seconds and minutes mattered most and the civil unrest that gripped the nation during the summer of 2020.
In the middle of it all, Chris Cheng – a gay Asian American man and past History Channel Top Shot competitive shooting champion – testified in front of a U.S. Senate committee hearing and summarized what was happening.
“The past year-and-a-half or so with COVID-19 has been a pressure cooker… When you couple that with calls to defund the police and taking law enforcement officers off the street… it makes citizens like me less safe,” Cheng said. “If I can’t have law enforcement there, then it is a rational conclusion that individual citizens like myself would opt to utilize my Second Amendment right to purchase a firearm and use that firearm in lawful and legal self-defense.”
In Washington, D.C., African American mothers of young children Kennette Brown and Nicole Washington each spoke to local media earlier this year and explained why they joined the gun-owning community.
“A lot of times men look at women and they think we are defenseless. They target us, first because they think we don’t carry. We can defend ourselves as women, we are not as weak as you think we are,” Brown said. Washington added, “With all the things going on in the world, you just want to be able to protect yourself.”
Cheng, Washington and Brown all exemplify how Americans – including record numbers of non-white male Americans – became empowered to take their own safety into their hands and buy a gun. To anyone paying attention, the shift in who was buying and training with firearms was a welcomed sign, as the Second Amendment is for every law-abiding citizen.
The Big Number
NSSF works constantly with our members to understand who is buying firearms and why. The trend throughout 2020-2023 was that Americans overwhelmingly decided to take up the Second Amendment and become gun owners, seek education, training and practice. Local media reports abound of sold-out and jampacked classes across the country.
Industry data shows that since 2020, at least 22.3 million law-abiding Americans went to a licensed gun store and purchased a firearm for the first time. As mentioned – that’s approximately the population of the state of Florida, all new gun owners.
Segmented out by year, it’s unsurprising the initial shock and feelings of unease in 2020 led to the largest surge in first-time buyers. Midway through 2020, first-time gun owners accounted for approximately 40 percent of buyers, according to retailers. The “normal” is usually somewhere around 20-24 percent. All told in 2020, there were approximately 8.4 million new first-time gun owners.
In 2021, the initial surge in first-timers subsided a bit and the number totaled about 5.4 million first-time gun buyers. The percentage dropped to around 30 percent of all buyers. In 2022, totaled approximately 4.2 million and 2023 actually rose just a bit to 4.3 million, according to industry data. The 2024 figures aren’t finalized yet, but so far there have been just north of 6 million total FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) verifications processed for the sale of a firearm. If the percentages hold to average, that could mean another million more first-time gun buyers for the year, so far.
After the May 2024 firearm sales figures were reported, and in the face of increased calls for more gun control by President Joe Biden and his gun control allies, NSSF’s Mark Oliva told media, “May showed that over 1 million Americans chose to exercise their Second Amendment rights, which starts by being able to freely approach the gun counter to make a legal firearm purchase. That streak over more than 1 million background checks has continued for 58 months, uninterrupted. Firearm ownership by law-abiding Americans is more than a luxury. It is essential to guarantee the freedoms and liberties we all enjoy.”
Voting With Wallets and Ballots
It’s crystal-clear that law-abiding Americans have been voting for more Second Amendment rights with their wallets. On average, according to industry data, those first-time buyers are spending an average of $500-$700 on their purchase (mostly for 9 mm handguns).
But gun owners are making their voices heard at the ballot box too – as they should. Voters have already come out in full force to give the boot to soft-on-crime prosecutors who have continued to side with those who break the law (often repeatedly) instead of ensuring community safety. Most recently voters in Portland, Ore., voted to replace the George Soros-backed district attorney in their city after just one term. After Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster each signed legislation into law in their respective states this year, there are now 29 states that allow Constitutional Carry, or permitless carry, to all law-abiding gun owners to carry a concealed firearm for self defense without the need for a government-issued permit.
With federal elections just five months away (and early voting begins in September in some states), control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are up for grabs while crime and neighborhood safety continue to be at top of mind for voters. And above all, voters will decide whether or not to give President Biden, who continues to support severe gun control restrictions and uses executive actions to implement them on his own, another term or return former President Donald J. Trump, who has vowed to uphold the Second Amendment and gun rights, to office for a second, non-consecutive term.
It is abundantly clear that there is a brand-new Florida-sized population that is giving gun rights a heavier weight as they consider how to cast their ballots. Those 22.3 million Americans need to register and on Election Day to #GUNVOTE so they don’t risk their rights.
—Mark Olivia, NSSF
biden. dacian. soros. bloomberg. miner49er. gates.
Best gun salesmen ever. And they are wrecking the democrat party in the process.
Meh. If you vote Dim or RINO you’re just an armed leFtArD🙄
RINO? Gun owners who watched their country fall in the hands of self serving socialist democRats and do not have the courage to say, TRUMP 2024.
D-Day…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0H6kYE8InIc&feature=shared
moderated again…Any word ending in ist must-see it off.
You mean like obnoxiousest ?
Oh, wait, that ends in est.
“at least 22.3 million” – sounds like the number of illegal aliens (criminal border jumpers) Obiden has allowed to enter in the last 41m. But be # might well be higher than that.
As the “industry” laud their figures remember that not all of those firearms sales were to people on “our side”. Could they be going to the millions of military aged CHINESE illegals?
How would such illegal sales be tracked??? These are numbers from FFLs, so sales that had an approved background check. Don’t let right-wing fearmongering aboyt Chibese infiltrators outweigh common sense.
” Without the need for a government issued permit ”
Bullshit, 4473 form.
Might not be a permit but it sure as hell is government permission.
Think about the irony.
The Second Amendment supposedly guaranteeing We The People are armed well enough to over throw a tyrannical government and yet We The People must get permission from the Government to arm ourselves.
Hows that supposed to work?
As designed, in their favor.
And dont go to that gunm store that blond works at, that woman in the white blouse has been holding that pink AR for two months now.
Probably waiting on .giv to okay her 4473 permission form.
Considering the view I don’t mind waiting.
Is the blond pointing to the lipstick holder?
I think that’s the Swiss Army version of the AR, a bottle opener.
… both the woman on the left and the one on the right in the picture are nice. ” So, a great feature of the AR design is the ambidextrous racking assist ” ….
Gun ownership is not a reflection of a someones politics. We all know this. It does not mean a vote in any particular direction.
I helped a nice lady in her mid 60s at my church complete her first firearm purchase in the last few days. On the plus side, she owns a firearm now. On the minus side, our blatantly unconstitutional state firearm acquisition process (whether via gift, transfer, trade, or purchase) took about 10 days even though she was purchasing from a well established brick-and-mortar sporting goods retailer with their federal firearms license.
I intend to visit her at her home in the next several days to train her on safe and responsible firearm handling and use. She is very excited and can’t wait to learn, train, and start shooting!
Secondary upside: She’s still young enough for the front lines in Ukraine.
Tertiary upside: Her going to the front lines of Ukraine eases the strain on Social Security and Medicare.
Quaternary upside: After being sent to Ukraine she’s 100% guaranteed to vote Biden.
strych9,
“Secondary upside: She’s still young enough for the front lines in Ukraine.”
Likewise, she is still young enough for the front lines in Russia!
Pretty sure that’s now allowed under the current regime.
Well, at least not without a lot of name calling.
They’re working on it (the current administration).
Similar story here.
In 2020, when things were going sideways, I helped 6-7 guys at my parish get and train with AR-15s. None of them had such rifles before, but the nightly news made them into true believers quickly.
Moral of the story: take someone shooting.
Of course, these 22.3 mil are representative of transfers through FFL’s. They don’t count legal transfers between private citizens, relatives, etc.
LB – “legal transfers IF allowed in your state of residence” – there fify. Most of us understand that such transfers are not ‘recorded’ by fedzilla but too many states/local jurisdictions still require some form of registration. Private sales in free states don’t.
Liberal gun owners will continue to vote liberal. Jewish people are buying guns today in higher numbers than ever before because of October 7. Yet they will continue to vote for anti-2A and anti-Israel liberal politicians.
Go figure. Leftism is a mental disease.
I wonder how many of those democrat voters that bought a new gun in 2020 turned it in at a gun buyback in 2021? Plenty of liberals buy them out of fear and end up never touching them again until it’s time to get rid of it. Most of these people never make the mental connection between buying guns and the politician they vote for. Many live their lives under the thinking that they are the only ones they know that ‘should’ have one.
It isn’t an expression of 2nd Amendment rights half as much as the fact that they can buy them (when they need them).
I have no doubt that many BLM folks spent money at gun stores.
How many people in the middle east are thanking the 2A and the American constitution for the full auto weapons Biden gave them? I’m sure they all have fond memories of filling out those 4473’s.
Probably pretty few of them. They might not know how to use it but possession of the item feels better.
Besides, gun control is for other people.
You know, the little people. MAGAs, rednecks, Conservatives, fascists, those with poor taste in wine, cats or both, people who don’t have the appropriately sized collection of large “back door” toys or don’t read The Atlantic and then discuss the contents as if they came from a serious publication…
The last two are basically the same but the crossover ain’t perfect.
(golf clap)
Dettlebach is Jewish
Never understood why people support politicians who want them disarmed, destitute and demoralized.
Well I have to quote Gene Wilder from Young Doctor Frankenstein not just again but twice.
“Nice knockers!”
“Nice Knockers!”
Walk this way…
She’s the bait and she’s the hook
Someone bound to take a look
You take the blonde… I’ll take the one with the AR.
Borrowing from Igor.
” Those 22.3 million Americans need to register and on Election Day to #GUNVOTE so they don’t risk their rights.”
*facepalm*
And all the people who moved from California need to #NOTVOTEBLUE. Too bad most of them still will because reversion to mean is a real thing.
And that’s because they’ll tell the biggest lies to themselves. “This time doing the same thing will produce different results!”.
The biggest problem with single issue voters is that they believe they can convert other people to being single issue voters.
Sounds like recidivism to me.
Nobody will be coming to save you, prepare accordingly.
This applies to more than just firearms.
Regarding the claim that Americans have rejected the polemics of the anti gun/anti rights set in the above article, Thank Goodness Is All To Appropriate A Sentiment.
it does go with that nail 💅 polish!!!
…and on that note, I am happy that my state is still rating a solid “F” by the Everytown For Gun Safety website (aka, Gun Control.org). It is wonderful to fail at something such as this. And congratulations to Florida! I am sure you made Gabby Giffords and Michael Bloomberg most unhappy.
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