The latest figures from the FBI show that August was the 16th consecutive month of record background checks for retail gun sales.
The previous record for the month of August was set in 2015, when 1,745,410 background checks were conducted. But FBI figures show 1,853,815 checks were performed during August 2016, thereby continuing the record streak for background checks that began in May 2015.
On August 4 Breitbart News reported that July 2016 became the 15th consecutive month of record background checks by beating the record for July which was set in 2015. There were 1,600,832 background checks performed in July 2015, but these figures were surpassed by nearly 600,000 with a total of 2,197,169 background checks in July 2016.
The number of background checks conducted in a single month is not a precise indicator of the number of guns sold, and this is because background checks are conducted on the buyer rather than the number of guns purchased by the buyer. This means two million background checks for any given month may actually represent four million guns sold (if every buyer purchases two guns). And if every buyer purchased three guns it means two million background checks equals six million guns sold.
Breitbart News previously reported that senior citizens are a driving force behind the surging gun sales. They have been driven to guns by the chaos of society and the threat of terrorism. Women are also a driving force and have been since approximately 2010. Their participation in shooting sports and concealed carry has literally changed the way guns are being marketed to the public. National Shooting Sports Foundation figures show that “42 percent of women who own a firearm have at least three.”
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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