FBI: May Is 13th Consecutive Month of Record Background Checks

FBI figures show that May 2016 was the thirteenth consecutive month of record background checks for retail gun sales.

The current string of checks began in May 2015, when 1,580,980 background checks set the record for the month of May.

Every month since May 2015 has continued to set a record–i.e., June 2015 had more background checks than any June on record, July had more background checks than any July on record, August more than any other August, and so on.

Now May 2016 has broken the record set in May 2015.

According to the FBI, there were 1,870,000 background checks performed in May 2016, which is nearly 290,000 more than were performed in May 2015.

The number of background checks performed does not translate into an exact number of guns sold. That’s because background checks are not performed on a specific gun, but on a specific buyer. A buyer who passes a check can buy multiple firearms, if he so chooses.

In other words, the 1,870,000 background checks in May could mean exactly 1,870,000 guns were sold at retail but it could just as easily mean the number of guns sold was 3,740,000–if everyone who passed a background check purchased two firearms.

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.