NICS Numbers Back Over One Million In August
![[FBI]](https://cdn-fastly.thefirearmblog.com/media/2025/09/09/03291/nics-numbers-back-over-one-million-in-august.jpg?size=720x845&nocrop=1)
After July saw sales at American gun stores drop below the one-million mark for the first time in many years, August saw a rebound. Although August 2025 saw fewer guns sold in the States than August 2024, the number was still over one million firearms sold (more or less), putting the industry back on track.
Who’s Buying Guns @ TFB:
Going By The NICS Numbers
The number of firearms sold in the US cannot be definitively determined, for various reasons, but the NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) numbers will get you pretty close once the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) runs the federal figures through their formula.
NICS is a federal database inquiry system that does background checks on customers at gun stores. It’s used for firearms purchases, but also other transactions like CCW permit applications in some states. One NICS inquiry can mean a gun sale, or multiple gun sales, or no sale at all. Additionally, other states have independent background check systems. If you look at them closely, the NICS numbers sort of sound like Drew Carey’s description of the games on Whose Line Is It Anyway—the points are all made up and don’t matter.
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The reality is that while NICS numbers aren’t 100 percent accurate, they are a good guesstimation of the industry’s health once the NSSF applies its own formula to the numbers, filtering the information as accurately as possible based on their own industry data.
August NICS Numbers
For August 2025, the NSSF says the NICS numbers meant 1,091,342 gun sales at U.S. firearms dealers, including long guns and handguns.
![[Zac K.]](https://cdn-fastly.thefirearmblog.com/media/2025/09/09/03293/nics-numbers-back-over-one-million-in-august.jpg?size=720x845&nocrop=1)
For the sake of reference, Americans bought 1,210,995 firearms in August of 2024, so the numbers are down 9.9 percent according to NICS figures from last year. Unsurprisingly, Texas and Florida led the country in reported firearm sales, but gun-unfriendly California was third. But as Mark Oliva, the bigwig in charge of the NSSF’s public affairs, said: “These figures are more than data points. They represent Americans from all walks of life who are, quite literally, investing in their safety, security and freedom.” Anyone who pays attention to the headlines, whether it be in a 2A-friendly state or not, is going to be motivated to acquire extra protection these days.
Professional hoser with fudd-ish leanings.
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I expect the numbers for September and October will be a little higher now that the Left have shown their hand by taking out a great American named Charlie Kirk, may he rest in peace. Americans are absolutely fed up with the party of the Left.
The problem with NICS numbers is that in some states like Texas, Concealed Carry Permit holders are not required to do a background checks. And as stated in the article NICS checks are done for other reasons. It is still the best proxy to estimate gun sales, but it is not an accurate number.
Something that may be affecting the numbers is recent changes to the NFA. Since the big beautiful bill (or whatever they are calling it now) passed, the Federal Excise tax on Short Barreled Rifles, Short Barreled Shotguns and Suppressors will be going away as of January 1, 2026. As a result a large number to people who were planning to buy those items are waiting till January to make their purchase. Which will save them $200 in tax. This would explain the sharp decline in July sales. And since several suppressor manufacturers started offering $200 rebates in August to encourage buyers not to wait until January, it would also explain the partial recovery in August. Of course I have no idea if NFA sales are a large enough segment of the overall firearms market to skew the numbers like this.