Gun sales might be somewhat lower than last year, but recently reported totals from December and all of 2025 indicate a continued vigorous market for firearms.
In fact, the new figure of over 1 million monthly gun sales has continued through December, marking the fifth consecutive month with more than 1 million background checks since the single month in July with fewer than a million. As most readers probably remember, before July, when the number fell below 1 million, the previous streak of months with over 1 million background checks had lasted nearly six years.
The December 2025 National Shooting Sports Foundation-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,587,049 is an increase from 1,408,230 in November, but represented a 3.4% decrease from last December’s total of 1,642,270. For comparison, the unadjusted December 2025 FBI NICS figure of 2,220,852 reflects a 16.1 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,647,933 in December 2024.
Mark Oliva, NSSF managing director of public affairs, said the 1 million-plus number indicates that Americans are still practicing their Second Amendment rights at a brisk pace.
“The fact that nearly 1.6 million background checks were conducted in December for the retail sale of a firearm demonstrates that Second Amendment rights are critically important to Americans,” Oliva said.
Along with the December figures, the NSSF report also showed fairly strong sales for all of 2025, although somewhat lower than in 2026. The annual 2025 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 14,612,314 reflects a decrease of 4.1 percent compared to the 15,239,011 figure for 2024.
“There were over 14.6 million background checks for the sale of firearms through the entire year,” Oliva added. “This is an undeniable fact that lawful gun ownership is a valued and treasured right exercised by tens of millions of Americans daily. Certain political figures continue to rail against and restrict the free exercise of Second Amendment rights and do so at the peril of ignoring these law-abiding citizens who are voting with their wallets. Gun ownership continues to grow even as we see falling crime rates. These Americans are, quite literally, investing in their personal safety and freedom.”
According to the NSSF, the top five states for Adjusted NICS checks in December were Texas, Florida, California, Pennsylvania and Ohio. For handgun NICS checks, the Top-5 were Florida, Texas, California, Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania, while Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio and Virginia topped long-gun checks.
Although not directly correlated to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data offer an additional view of current market conditions. Besides other uses, NICS is used to verify transactions for the sale or transfer of new or used firearms.
Notably, more than half the states—28 to be exact—have at least one qualified alternative permit, which, under the Brady Act, allows the permit holder, who has undergone a background check to obtain the permit, to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer without a separate additional background check for that transfer. The number of NICS checks in these states does not include these legal transfers based on qualifying permits, so the actual number of gun sales is likely much higher.
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