The latest figures from the FBI show that background checks for October 2016 exceeded the previous October record by more than 350,000.
The previous record was 1,976,759 background checks, set in October 2015, but the latest FBI figures show 2,333,539 checks were performed in October 2016. That is an increase of 356,780 background checks.
The new record also makes October 2016 the 18th consecutive month of record background checks, thereby continuing a pattern that we have seen monthly beginning May 2015.
Breitbart News reported that the number of background checks conducted in September 2016 exceeded the previous September record by nearly 200,000. Prior to that, the number of background checks performed in August exceeded the previous August record by nearly 100,000. The number of background checks performed in July 2016 exceeded the previous July record by nearly 600,000.
Remember that the number of background checks conducted in a single month is not a precise indicator of the number of guns sold. This is because background checks are conducted on the buyer rather than the number of guns purchased by the buyer. This means 2,333,539 background checks for October 2016 may actually represent 4,667,078 guns sold (if every buyer purchases two guns). And if every buyer purchased three guns it means more than seven million guns would have been sold at retail in October alone.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.