{"id":63691,"date":"2021-01-08T09:05:08","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T15:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=63691"},"modified":"2021-01-08T09:05:08","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T15:05:08","slug":"63691","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=63691","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Taking Stock Of A Record-Setting Firearm Year<\/a><\/p>\n

Twenty-one million. Let that number sink in for a moment.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a very big number. If I told you at SHOT Show\u00ae last year that the industry would see 21 million background checks for the sale of a firearm in 2020, you would have thought I was crazy. One year later and with the benefit of hindsight, this was truly a remarkable year for the industry across the board.<\/p>\n

The final figures for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) put all of this year\u2019s hard work into perspective. Twenty-one million background checks were conducted for the sale of a firearm over the past 12 months. That topped 2019\u2019s totals of 13.2 million by 60 percent. It also shattered the previous record from 2016, when 15.7 million background checks were conducted for the sale of firearms. This year\u2019s 21 million total surpassed 2016 by 5.3 million, or 34 percent.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one more incredible number to witness. NSSF estimates that 8.4 million people bought a firearm for the first time in 2020. That\u2019s 40 percent of all purchases. This year\u2019s buyer is increasingly diverse too. Forty percent of 2020\u2019s buyers were women and the biggest increase of any demographic category was among African Americans, who bought guns at a rate of 58 percent greater than in 2019.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Resilience<\/p>\n

None of this was possible without the resilience and determination of the industry. Our own Government Relations teams \u2013 both in Federal and State Affairs \u2013 were quick to act to keep the industry open. When the rest of America was shutting down, NSSF\u2019s team made sure gun manufacturers, distributors, retailers and ranges weren\u2019t forced to close their doors. It was apparent early that Americans in every state were choosing to exercise their Second Amendment rights in record numbers and that\u2019s not possible unless manufacturers are turning raw metal into finished firearms and ammunition.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s Second Amendment freedoms are literally designed, assembled and shipped from NSSF member manufacturers, distributors and retailers each day.<\/p>\n

Even while the firearm industry was cranking production to record levels, they were also serving their communities. Brownells offered computer server space to run modeling tests for vaccine research. Federal Premium, SIG SAUER, Radians, Smith & Wesson, Versacarry, Keltec and Ruger were among many of the firearm businesses that converted manufacturing space or donated supplies to help first responders. Bass Pro Shops\u2019 Johnny Morris donated one million masks to keep first responders safe.<\/p>\n

Response<\/p>\n

The amazing thing is that among the concerns surrounding the pandemic, the industry responded. Manufacturing and distribution facilities shifted personnel and made physical changes to accommodate social distancing guidelines. Retailers and ranges adopted safety measures to keep customers and staff safe. This all happened even as the industry worked to keep up with the breathless pace of demand.<\/p>\n

That demand is most clearly evident on the ammunition shelves. Most shelves are still bare, but that\u2019s not a result of anything but overwhelming demand. At 8.4 million new gun owners buying just two boxes of ammunition each, that translates to 850 million cartridges. Federal Premium\u2019s Jason Vanderbrink spoke directly to customers to set the record straight. Rumors of secret warehouses or reduced production capacity just aren\u2019t true.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing our damnedest to meet this demand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jason Hornady of Hornady Ammunition echoed the same notion in his own video.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stuff that goes out today was literally put in a box yesterday,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve made one-third more than last year. Unfortunately, we don\u2019t have an extra factory laying around\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

This is true across the industry. It\u2019s what\u2019s made 2020 successful and what will set this industry up to meet demand across America in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking Stock Of A Record-Setting Firearm Year Twenty-one million. Let that number sink in for a moment. That\u2019s a very big number. If I told you at SHOT Show\u00ae last year that the industry would see 21 million background checks for the sale of a firearm in 2020, you would have thought I was crazy. … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gun-schtuff","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63692,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63691\/revisions\/63692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}