July’s gun sales failed to reach the one million mark for the first time in six years, according to an estimate by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). The organization estimates firearm purchases last month came in at 978,731, ending a seven-figure streak —based on NSSF’s calculations using the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) volume—that began back in July of 2019.
It didn’t come as a complete surprise, however. NSSF’s June’s estimate, 1,004,986, was barely above one million and reflected a decline of 5.1 percent when compared to the same period in 2024. That year total volume was roughly 1,059,037.
Retailers, distributors and manufacturers experience a drop in demand during the dog days of summer, when families are on vacation, hunters have yet to get serious about opening-day and heat thins firing lines. It’s uncertain how many anticipated an even worse year-over-year decline in July. That figure was 8.1 percent, three points worse than in June.
The Beginning—Not When You Think
The 71-month streak did not begin with the collision of Covid-19 pandemic and widespread social unrest. It was July 2019.
What followed shattered all previous highwater marks. Last year NSSF put the figures into perspective. “The five years of million-plus monthly background checks included record setting years for lawful firearm ownership,” it stated in a blog post. “The month with the most background checks for firearm sales ever recorded was in March 2020, when 2.3 million background checks were completed. That year, 2020, over 21 million background checks for the sale of a firearm had been completed by the year’s end. That shattered the previous annual record set in 2016 of 15.7 million completed background checks.”
The week of March 16 to March 22, 2020, set the record for the highest volume in a seven-day period. It came in at a staggering 1,197,788.
NSSF’s figures do not include those from the 28 states that have at least one qualified alternative permit, which under the Brady Act allows the permit-holder—who has undergone a background check to obtain the permit—to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer without a separate additional NICS background check for that transfer. Purchases in those areas are not included in published NICS numbers and NSSF does not adjust figures for these transfers.
