NICS for February, 2024 Holding the Course NOTES

TOTAL_NICS =  2336390

Total estimated gun sales =  1285942  99.7% of last February

2,440,730 NICS checks from Month/Year chart

NICS February 2023

 February of 2022 was the third highest February for gun sales since the National Instant background Check System (NICS) started in 1998. It was the fourth highest number of NICS checks done during the month of February.

Only 46 percent of the National Instant background Check System checks were for carry permits and carry permit rechecks in February of 2022. In February of 2021, the carry permits and permit rechecks were about 60 percent of total NICS checks.

The change seems related to implementation of a reformed FOID card system in Illinois. Public Act 102-0237 went into effect in January. It appears to have reduced the number of background checks conducted by Illinois state police by hundreds of thousands of checks a month. 

In February of 2021, there were about 3.44 million NICS checks, total. 

In February of 2022, there were about 2.55 million NICS checks, total. 

Feb 2016, 2022 and 2023 all hover a bit above and below 2.6 million NICS checks, with about a 120 thousand spread from highest to lowest of those three years. (there are slight variations on the number of total NICS checks, depending on which FBI report is looked at)

Feb  2020 and 2021 were highly anomolous numbers of total NICS checks because the checks done in Illinois and Kentucky were outrageously high.

372,668 in feb 2023 ill checks and rechecks, 846,252 feb of 2021

Those total NICS numbers include all the checks done for carry permits and carry permit rechecks.

There were about 1.30 million guns sold using the NICS checks in February of 2022. 

In February of 2021, there were about 1.35 million sold.

In February of 2020, there were about 1.24 million sold

In February of 2016, there were about 1.41 million sold