FBI figures show April 2020 witnessed more firearm background checks than any April since the inception of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), in 1998.
According to the FBI, there were 2,911,128 background checks conducted in April 2020. The closest any other April came to that figure was in 2019, when 2,334, 294 NICS checks were done.
April’s surge in background checks followed a March that shattered all one-month records. Breitbart News reported March 2020 witnessed 3,740,688 background checks, which were the most checks conducted in any single month since the inception of NICS.
The March and April surge came amid an unprecedented run on guns and ammunition during the issuance of coronavirus shutdowns, coupled with doomsday scenarios with civil unrest.
On March 19, 2020, Breitbart News quoted Kyle Olsen, owner of Arizona’s Olsen Firearms, saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this.”
He noted that the sales surge eclipsed what his store witnessed in January 2013, a time when Joe Biden was pushing numerous post-Sandy Hook gun controls for Barack Obama.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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