August 2019 NICS background check data NSSF
Courtesy NSSF

With plenty of talk of confiscations and outlawing America’s most popular firearm — as night follows day — gun buyers are reaching into their wallets and…buying more guns. The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s just-released NICS data — a good barometer of firearm sales numbers — showed a sharp increase form July and year earlier numbers.

As the NSSF’s data show, August gun sales always begin to rise in August (July is the lowest NICS total month) most likely because we’re beginning to near fall and hunting season. But 2019’s August NICS check numbers took a sharp 15.2% jump over the year-earlier total.

The August 2019 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,113,535 is an increase of 15.2 percent compared to the August 2018 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 966,809. For comparison, the unadjusted August 2019 FBI NICS figure 2,341,363 reflects a 15.5 percent increase from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,026,309 in August 2018.

As the presidential campaign continues to heat up and federal and state efforts to enact a raft of new gun control legislation — new “assault weapons” ban, “high capacity” magazine ban, “universal” background checks and red flag laws — advance, more gun owners may be deciding now’s the time to fill the safe.

August 2019 NICS background check data NSSF
Courtesy NSSF

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60 COMMENTS

  1. Any vote for a democrat is a vote to end the 2nd Amendment. There are no exceptions to this rule…..democrats will vote for more gun control laws, will vote to appoint anti-gun judges and justices…..they will not stop after they get ARs, or magazines over 10 rounds. Each step leads to the next step…this is a battle for inches and yards and they will not stop…ever.

      • I am not a young man. I never thought I would view someone who disagrees with me politically as my enemy. They are telling me what they intend to do. They are indeed my enemy

    • You can say that also about the Republicans in the House that crossed over and voted with the Democrats on those bills in August.

      • Yes, we Patriots can walk and chew gum. Well aware the issue is not isolated to regressive democrats only, there is also the issue of RINOs that need ousting.

    • I long ago established that I could never vote for a democrap.

      But if the republicans and Trump don’t come correct I will not not vote for them either.

      Bump stock ban was strike one.

      I’m waiting to see what else he does if anything.

      • Think! Please! A no vote is a vote for confiscation and an end to the 2A. It’s the same as a vote for the demoncrats. Possibly a short lived and lost civil war. Control of the house and Senate is what we need. At the very least we must keep the senate in republican hands.

      • Crimson Pirate,

        I understand and generally agree with your sentiment.

        And I have one request:

        Before refusing to vote for Republicans at the federal level, please see what ruling the United States Supreme Court hands down for the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association versus City of New York case. If we get a favorable ruling (which requires our Courts apply “Strict Scrutiny” to Second Amendment court challenges), that will empower the courts to strike down most gun-control laws — past, present, and future.

        Furthermore, in order to achieve maximum results, we need Republicans to install one more round of judges to federal courts after such a ruling. That, of course, requires that Republicans maintain the Presidency and a majority in the United States Senate just four more years.

        We also know that United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is living on borrowed time, and is almost guaranteed to leave the Supreme Court during the next Presidential term. We really, REALLY, REALLY need ONE MORE SOLID CONSERVATIVE Justice on the United States Supreme Court to seriously strengthen federal courts’ ability to uphold the Second Amendment.

        For the 2024 election and beyond, punish Republicans who fail to support the Second Amendment all you want. I will be right there with you.

        • Look at how you worded your original comment again, and see how it’s easily perceived as troll mantra. Similar to what Vlad and Miner49er have been writing forever.

          If you didn’t mean it that way, please clarify for the room. Or if it was sarcasm, end with a [/sarc] tag so we know.

        • I don’t think we are going to get a win any time soon or for the foreseeable future. I don’t think Trump abides the constitution or most republicans. The republicans who do and run for president never get nominated.

          I don’t think voting party line solves it. I definitely don’t advocate voting dem though. Just because someone disagrees with something does not make them a troll though. I was not being sarcastic.

        • Although there are strong Constitutionalists and 2A allies, many Republicans are ambivalent to 2A rights. However, almost all Democrats are hostile to them. I’ll take neglect over someone trying to slit my throat any day. Calling them the same is ignorance.

        • I can understand that position and can respect it Anymouse. People are just going to do what they think is best and all we can do is advertise our positions and beliefs best we can.

        • I would add to that voting solidly for republicans no matter what is ignorant. 🙂 If you never punish them they will never get better. Support 3rd parties.

        • Biatec,
          A vote for a 3rd party conservative is a vote for the demoncrat! Be sure that your conservative candidate is as bad as the demoncrat before casting such a vote.

        • @Pirate: My sentiments precisely. Right up to the moment I was driving to my polling place in PA.

          Toomy is no friend of the 2A; nor, of the Constitution. Nevertheless, he is a nominal Republican. That means that he votes – along party lines – for the Senate Majority Leader.

          I had to ask myself: ‘With control of the Senate in the hands of the last couple of Senate candidates, who would I wish in charge? Better Schumer? Or, McConnell?’

          By the time I reached my polling place, I had finally settled on my decision. I held my nose; I closed my eyes; I drank heavily of that bitter brew.

          I hope that the Goddess of the Gun will forgive me.

    • Biatec,

      I am equally frustrated at how many Republicans fail to really support the Second Amendment.

      Please consider the following:

      (1) Politics suck. Many Republican politicians feel vulnerable and fear losing their seat if they vigorously oppose or support the Second Amendment. So they try to appear “moderate” — in some ways supporting and in some ways weakening our right to keep and bear arms.
      (2) Politics suck. A common tactic that politicians employ is ducking a controversy and assigning blame to someone else. With respect to the Second Amendment, that means letting the courts take the heat. Thus, while many Republicans are not willing to vote for legislation which seriously strengthens our right to keep and bear arms, they ARE willing to install federal court judges who will seriously support/strengthen our right to keep and bear arms and let voters be angry at the courts instead.

      This approach gives Republicans in vulnerable districts the best odds of keeping their seats while still providing some support for the Second Amendment (even though that support is watered-down and obscured). While it is not what I want to see, it very well could be the most that we can achieve on a political level given the realities of our nation.

  3. But…but…I’ve been told that at least 66% of Americans don’t even own a gun. Surely the folks with a vested interest in ending gun ownership in America would not lie to me? Would they?

    • Yes. From an ATF legal standpoint, the only difference between an AR pistol and an SBR (all other components being exactly the same, complete with forestop instead of a vertical handgrip) is the split rubber arm brace at the rearmost end of the gun.

      Solid plastic = stock = SBR
      Split rubber = brace = Okee Dokee (for now)

      • I know about the legal niceties. Not my first tax stamp rodeo by a long shot.

        The question is if PSA makes good stuff. Their prices seem like they’re either a great value or cheap crap. I’m wondering if anyone has any experience with them in that regard.

        I’m interested in the brand quality specifically, not the item’s legal status.

        • I have a 12 inch pistol from them. Have shot probably 2.5-3k rounds, works well, no issues, have it sighted in at 50 with a red dot and have it as a home defense gun. Have banged it about in the hills a bit as well and haven’t had any issues doing that either. Have the sig brace on it (adjustable) great brace.

          I think I have one of their full length AR’s in my safe as well but haven’t really used it a lot, neither gun struck me as being anything special, but they work.

          I build my lowers so only bought uppers from them.

        • Not being a smart ass but giving a serious answer to your question. Look at YouTube and do a Google search and watch and read reviews of PSA. Yes they have good prices and their products can be good. Their customer service and ship times are quite possibly the worst in the industry. From everything I’ve watched and read I won’t order from them just on the basis of their customer service. Paying a little more somewhere else is worth having the peice of mind knowing I’ll get good customer service and fast shipping.

    • I ordered some pistol lower kits from there recently with shockwave braces. I’m pretty excited. I never heard anything bad about psa from people I know who own their stuff. It will arrive soon.

      • I have one from PSA and absolutely love it. I attached my preferred accessories, took it out to the Nevadan desert, and enjoyed shooting. What caliber & barrel length did you get, if I may ask (cuz I haz a question)?

        • I just got 2 pistol lowers to use with 5.56 uppers that have 10.5 and 7.5 barrels and quad rails. The shock wave braces seem really nice. Does yours have one? Do you like it?

        • I opted for the SB Tactical Adjustable brace instead of the Shockwave. I may get one more pistol kit while prices are low.

    • Strych9, I have ordered a metric shit ton of goodies from PSA and consider each penny well spent. I have had great experience with their customer service but I will say shipping times are slowish but not totally unrealistic. Specifically, my last purchase was a pistol upper in 300BLK w/ a 7.5″ barrel ( I build all my own lowers). I had to by a 300BLK specific mag cuz it wouldn’t feed w/ any 5.56 mag I tried. I will continue to buy from PSA without a doubt.

  5. And there it is. Politicians spurring the economy with ban threats. I have to admit regardless of how much it pains me that Obama did it better. Selling guns during his eight years probably kept us out of another depression. People slow down on buying and the government starts up the banning talks again. It’s almost like clockwork and most people literally buy into it.

    • The economy is booming under Trump. Anybody that wants a job has one. Why not spend some of that money on guns?

      • Oh I probably spend more than my fair share on guns and accessories. I just don’t jump on the frenzy wagon and go into debt everytime some dumbass politicians want to stir the pot. I buy what I want when I want. I just dropped over $700 putting a new barrel on a rifle. Not to mention the others things I’m involved in besides guns and reloading. Only so much money to go around. The dipshit politicians are going to have to wait. They can burn a little longer in the fire while I tend to more important irons.

        • Agreed, though it’s prudent to get “what you want” when prices are lower and supply is ample. As we’ve all seen before during both the Clinton and Obama years, the market can change for the worse and remain that way for a long time.

          My recommendation – in light of what’s happened here in CA with the ammo laws – is to stockpile your ammo and store away for the lean years.

          • Got plenty of brass, primers, powder and bullets. Granted I can’t fight a war but I could hold my own in a few healthy scrimmages. If all else fails I could put the wife and daughter working the reloading press as I’m fighting off the hoard. I take them empty brass, they bring me back loaded ammo. I think I just came up with the dream of dreams for shooters. 😎

        • LOL, I just got a mental picture of it.

          Your wife is furiously reloading at the bench like a boss, while your daughter loads the mags and tosses them up the ladder to you, where you’re positioned in the Tower sniping off the zombie hordes advancing on the perimeter. All to the tune of your favorite rock song being played over the speakers. A well-oiled family machine who didn’t take crap from the pre-apocalypse naysayers, and now aren’t taking any crap from the zombies.

        • Sabbath’s Children of the Grave would not only be appropriate, uncork you adrenaline and improve your accuracy, it would scare the hell out of them.

  6. Great time to buy guns, ammo, magazines…lots of choices…prices are great…stock is there.

    • Been that way for years. Hopefully most of us have already taken advantage of it, but always good to keep going.

      Here in CA, the door to buying ammo freely is closed, unless the current CRPA-led lawsuit defeats it. If anyone had asked the question as recently as 2015 if simple ammo purchases would require full background checks and registration, they’d have been laughed out of the room as tin-foil hatters. Now it’s here, kids, and Sacramento is going after all “ghost guns” and “precursor parts” as well with additional bills.

  7. Haven’t bought a gat since Spring but I gotta AR forend,2 tactical flashlights,an AR red/green dot reflex sight,tons of 223 and went shooting at my local Mokena Point Blank multiple times…does that count?!? I may get another cheap shotgun soon to join the party😄

  8. “As the NSSF’s data show, August gun sales always begin to rise in August” But when do April gun sales begin to rise?

  10. Americans, in huge numbers, love their guns. Good luck with any confiscation schemes gun control freaks, there is mounting resistance as people will jump through some hoops to satisfy you, but taking their property will not be tolerated.

  11. The left hasn’t yet figured out that they are the BEST, THE VERY BEST gun salespeople. And they don’t even have to tout any particular brand or type.

  12. Bans, prohibitions and the like fuel markets. They are creating a lucrative black market for criminals, increasing the dangers they claim they want to stop.

  13. The anti gun rhetoric is spurred on by these killers. We in the gun community are not a part of that and never have been. Some of us are collectors and shooters, hunters, and conservationists. The left wing democrats and the media wants to affect change to end the Second Amendment, and we oppose it. A gun is a tool and nothing more. The people who use it in a bad way could also use a knife, axe, or rock for all that matters, to kill. Anyway, hope that the liberals go down in defeat again, as the Second Amendment is what makes America Great!!!!!

    • That the 2nd makes America great is sad but true. It used to be that the 2nd made it better and the people made it great!

    • I hope that all of us, like minded, responsible gun owners, will voice our minds and follow through with our votes. Maybe bring a newbie to the range, out to hunt, or just start a conversation to talk about how our rights should not be legislated away regardless of if that person partakes in our passion. Once these God given rights are taken away, it is much more of a fight to regain them and sets a terrible precedent for taking others away. Today we live in a sad society, no one person is considered responsible for there own actions, which is why we have coffee cups with warnings to not burn yourself. To limit the majority of law abiding citizens because of a few individuals that chose to forever ruin their lives, their victims lives, and their families lives,, is ridiculous and not going to solve anything.

  14. The talk must be getting to people. For the first time ever, the number of individual women shooting guns at my range (individual=one person shooting per lane) outnumbered the total men shooting. It was a Saturday, when women always outnumber men. So something is up. It looked like 3 of them were trying out a recently purchased pistol.

  15. August gun sales always begin to rise in August? You don’t say! I bet December gun sales begin to rise on December 1st too!!

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