The ‘Million Guns Sold A Month’ continues for the 63rd month.
Background Check Numbers Say Over 1 Million Guns Sold Last Month
As the country shifts gears heading into summer, gun sales remained historically strong, with over a million sold at FFLs in May.
At least 1,998,440 federal background checks were processed through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System in May 2025, a number that is statistically flat when compared to the May 2024 figure of 2,000,505.
The firearms industry trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, adjusts the raw NICS numbers to remove gun permit checks and rechecks and leave the base number of checks done for over-the-counter sales. The adjusted figure for May 2025 stands at 1,071,685. This is a slight 1.6 percent decrease compared to the May 2024 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,089,117.
A key metric, according to NSSF, is that the sales continue to cruise north of 1 million per month, something the industry has maintained every month since July 2019.
“Background checks for retail sale of a firearm continue to remain over 1 million each month, showing that the right to keep and bear arms is of critical importance to Americans across this country,” Mark Oliva, public affairs officer with the NSSF, told Guns.com via email. “Despite economic uncertainty, these law-abiding citizens are investing in their personal safety and security – even in states where elected officials are pulling out all stops to limit the ability to legally purchase a firearm.”
The data crunched by the trade group is just a baseline. It does not cover privately made firearms in most cases, nor does it cover face-to-face personal sales in most states. Also, the ATF allows gun license holders in at least 28 states to show their credentials instead of a Brady check, and those transfers are not captured statistically in the NICS process.
“Firearm purchases are not an insignificant matter, and these background checks, while not a one-for-one comparison to a firearm sale, demonstrate the priority Americans place on their ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” said Oliva.