Yesterday, the National Shooting Sports Foundation released their latest adjusted NICS Background Checks report.
As anyone who’s tried to buy a firearms lately already knows, sales continue at a superheated pace. May’s adjusted numbers were the second-highest May on record, topped only by May of 2020.
To this point in 2021, according to the NSSF’s adjusted stats, we’ve seen over 8.5 million background checks for the sale of a firearm. As perspective, 2020 saw a record 8.1 million to this point.
In other words, lots of people are buying guns.
And despite what you may see in the mainstream news, they’re not all disgruntled, angry old white guys who don’t like the way things are going politically or societally.
In fact, a significant percentage of new purchasers are neither old nor white.
A recent study (quoted by the anti-gun Trace) says nearly half of new gun owners are women, and about twenty percent are black or Hispanic.
Consequently, the percentage of American households who own guns is going up, rising to thirty-nine percent last year. For perspective, that’s seven percent higher than 2016.
Why’s that?
You could point to the political unrest, social upheavals, and general lack of support for police in notable major cities as contributing factors.
The buffet of bad news that was 2020 has apparently motivated plenty of people that despite the disdain of gun owners in the mainstream media and because of politicians’ eagerness to disarm everyone except criminals, it’s time to assume personal responsibility for their safety.
As the NSSF’s Mark Oliva explains it, “they voted with their wallets when it comes to firearms ownership and their Second Amendment rights.” Gun rights, it seems, are far more valued than agenda-driven politicians and the media might have you believe.
Oliva says the numbers are “hardly surprising” to the industry.
The Biden administration has already made significant attempts at cranking down controls on legal firearms ownership and the gun industry.
From the nomination of David Chipman, a paid gun control lobbyist and “gun control zealot” (Oliva’s description), to proposed rules to redefine unfinished firearms as “completed” and a pending proposal to reclassify pistols with arm braces as items controlled under the National Firearms Act, Oliva says the actions “show the contempt this administration has for gun owners.”
On the surface, this might seem counter-intuitive.
After all, career politicians normally have their figurative fingers in the wind reading public opinion on topics. They then adapt their positions to fit.
Yet, when it comes to guns, it appears the only finger the Biden administration has hoisted for law-abiding gun owners is the middle one.
So, Americans appear to be doing the prudent thing and making certain that should push come to shove, they’ll be prepared to defend themselves from whom or whatever threatens their safety.
“Before this administration oversteps their Constitutional authority to deny that right,” Oliva says, “they’re sending a clear signal they value and will exercise that right.”
As Oliva observes, “The White House and Congress are blatantly disregarding the will of their constituents by chasing special interest gun control policies.”
“Americans,” he summarized, “are telling them - month after month- exactly where they stand when it comes to gun rights.”
They’re still not paying attention. That should concern all of us, regardless of our political affiliation.
— Jim Shepherd