Yes, it’s a click-bait headline, but I fell for it.
30% of American Gun Sales Were in This State
U.S. gun sales in March surged 25% to 4,691,738. This makes it among the largest single month since sales figures started to be recorded in 1998.
The increase is part of a trend. Gun sales in the United States rose 40% last year to 39,695,315. That represents the high water mark in annual gun sales since the current record-keeping system went into effect. Increases by state in March varied substantially, as has been the case for years.
According to Forbes: “Americans Are Spending Their Stimulus Checks On Guns.” So, yeah, I totally believe those numbers.
This is where the click-bait article threw me, I never would have guessed what came next.
The state with the most sales in March was Illinois at an extraordinary 1,427,197. That is 30% of national sales for the month. However, the state has slightly less than 4% of the national population. The same pattern holds true for the state that had the second-highest gun sales figure last month. Kentucky’s figure hit 330,476, or 7% of the national total. Its population is only 1.3% of the U.S. number.
Dude!
Illinois is breaking records.
Understand that to buy a gun in Illinois requires a state-issued FOID (Firearms Owner ID) and comes with a waiting period. So if in Illinois, the trend of record high percentages of first-time gun owners holds true, I can’t imagine how swamped the Ilinois State Police are just processing FOID applications.
I have been trying to figure out what caused such a spike in Illinois. It must be that the people of the state have been watching the local news and seeing just how much of a lawless, violent shithole parts of Chicago have become.
Good job people of Illinois, I am proud of you.
The rest of America, you need to catch up to Illinois numbers next month.
Update:
I had not considered that the ISP runs background checks as part of the FOID issuance. I know they did, but I didn’t consider that these checks might be included in the background check count. In that case, there is probably a lot of double counting, i.e., one check for the FOID and a second check at point of sale. This number would also include background checks in FOID applications or renewals that don’t include a gun purchase.
Still, if you assume that every one of these is a double count, that’s still a lot of guns sold and a lot of new FOID applicants. So good job people of Illinois.
Just a guess, but glancing at the article, I’m thinking the author didn’t know to look for the adjusted figures that split out the checks done for concealed carry permits and so forth, from checks done for an actual sale. NSSF estimates only 2M actual sales for March: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/01/business/gun-sales-march/index.html
Illinois requires a FOID card, so depending on how often they run checks on card holders, that would artificially inflate the figure for the state. Especially if they were trying to run through a backlog.
Sloppy journalism … Who’d have thought?
Another issue is that fact that the ISP are delaying FOID/ccp cards so long to the point that there are multiple lawsuits against them. Some people have been waiting over a year w/ avg of 6-9 months when, by law, it’s supposed to be 30 working days max.
Hello.
Illinoisian here. A FOID card for those who don’t know, is required to purchase, and possess, firearms and ammunition in the state. It’s not expensive at $10 for 10 years, but it can take forever to get one. The ISP actually run two background checks for each applicant; one federal and one state wide. One gotcha is that when you apply for a renewal they change your status to “Pending” meaning that until you get your new card, you can’t buy any guns or ammo so you have to stock up beforehand and probably not leave your property with a weapon.
Other possibilities: I read that the IL authorities have a habit of re-running background checks periodically, just for yucks, even if you’re not buying anything.
Another possibility: wasn’t it the case until a few years ago that IL didn’t issue handgun permits at all — which was fixed by a SCOTUS decision. If so, there might be a pent-up demand not present in states where no such policy existed.
In addition to what other commenters have said, they may be triple-counting, or more.
One for FOID issuance, one for FOID renewal, one for the gun purchase.
Plus any extra “for the Hell of it” checks ISP may or may not be doing.
But even triple- or quadruple-counted, that’s still some big numbers.
Well done, Illinois!
Actually it’s not a double count. Take a look at the NICS checks going back to last year and the years prior. Illinois consistently has over 600,000 checks. I have been told that what they do is they run NICS checks on the same person sometimes every day and sometimes multiple times a day. It is possible for the same person to have nearly 400 NICS checks done on them in a year. Meaning that in order to get an accurate number or you have to chop almost 600,000 checks right off to get a more accurate number.
In fact when I read the article stating how many background checks were done for whatever month I immediately subtract 600,000 from that number because I know those are just the state Running the same checks on the same people over and over and over again.