Americans Bought Nearly 16 Million Firearms Last Year in Defiance of Biden's Gun Control Push
The latest statistics for firearm sales is in, and they show that Americans bought nearly 16 million firearms in 2023 — despite Biden’s gun control push.
According to the FBI’s National Criminal Background Check System, 29,854,186 background checks were logged in 2023. This beats 2022, which saw 28,904,713 background checks, Guns.com reported on Thursday.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Americans purchased an estimated 15.8 million firearms in 2023, with 1,775,834 million purchases in December alone.
NSSF spokesperson Mark Oliva said that 24 states currently allow gun buyers to purchase additional firearms without having to go through another background check, so the actual number of sales is likely higher.
This latest data now brings a trend of over 1 million firearm purchases per month to 53 months in a row, Guns.com reported.
“By the millions for 50 months straight, law-abiding citizens are choosing to their right to keep and bear arms, despite the efforts of gun control politicians to enact laws to chill that right and others that issue unconstitutional edicts that deny that right,” Oliva said in an email to the outlet in September.
“Lawful firearm possession is truly the determining factor of the American character – that we are a people of self-determination and not left to be victims of those who have no respect for life or law.”
“Americans showed they want their Second Amendment rights by the millions — once again. These are solid figures that reflect the mood of Americans and the desire to exercise Second Amendment rights” Oliva said, regarding the latest data.
The data comes despite the Biden-Harris administration using a “‘whole-of-government’ approach” to limit the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, Oliva said.
Oliva was encouraged by the data and expects sales to continue to rise going into 2024.
“These figures are encouraging for the firearm industry going into 2024. History indicates that background checks for the lawful sale of firearms typically rise during election years. This industry is ready to satisfy the demand for lawful firearm ownership in America,” Oliva said, according to Analyzing America.
In 2023 alone, Americans experienced a slew of new restrictions on their Second Amendment rights and calls for even more restrictions.
In August, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms escalated it’s efforts to strip gun dealers of their federal firearms licenses, pulling 122 federal firearms licenses from dealers in Fiscal Year 2023 alone.
The Biden administration also announced in December that it was taking “executive action” and will begin to work with states to create legislation that they think states should adopt to further restrict firearms.
The Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion Act was also introduced in the Senate in December, which “addresses the lethal capacity weapons like the one used in Lewiston and most of the deadliest mass shootings across the country,” The Hill reported.
The bill also seeks to ban magazines larger than 10 rounds, ban modifications such as bump stocks, and ban the manufacturing of ghost gun kits.
Despite the slew of new restrictions, Americans continue to support the Second Amendment, and that doesn’t look like it’s changing any time soon.
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