If nothing else, the Biden Administration has been good for gun sales.
“That’s undoubtedly connected to President Joe Biden’s plans to attack the firearm industry by undoing and rewriting regulations and executive actions to target the firearm industry,” Mark Olivia, director of public affairs at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said in a statement.
Olivia pointed to the Biden Administration freezing the publication of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s “Fair Access” banking rule and promises to try to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act to tighten restrictions on gun licenses and ban AR-15 style rifles.
According to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check data, 4.3 million firearm background checks were initiated in January. That’s the highest number on record and up from more than 300,000 in comparison to December 2020. Three of the top 10 highest weeks are now from January 2021.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s adjusted background check figure of two million, reached by subtracting background code permit checks and permit rechecks and checks on active concealed carry permits, was a jump from its adjusted figure of 1.1 million in January 2020.
These are jaw-dropping figures to start the new year,” Olivia said. “Americans are claiming their Second Amendment rights to provide for their own safety in record numbers.”
Jurgen Brauer, chief economist for Small Arms Analytics, said in a statement that the new year “certainly started off with a sales ‘bang’ due to the turmoil surrounding the confirmation and inauguration of Mr. Biden as the new U.S. president. The 79 percent year-over-year increase, however, was NOT unprecedented — an even higher increase, of just over 100 percent, was experienced in January 2013, the month Mr. Obama’s second presidential term began.”
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice
