June 2020 NICS Checks Smash Records Like the Hulk on PCP

It didn’t exactly take Nostradamus to predict this would happen…but what comes next?

Last month, we drew an article from our “no duh” files about how the FBI’s NICS checks for the month of May 2020 had shattered all previous records…and predicted that June would be the same, only much more so. There’s really nothing quite like seeing their downtowns on fire to send Americans hustling to the gun store, driver’s licenses and credit cards at the ready. (Except, of course, seeing their downtowns on fire while learning that their city government is planning to defund the police.) And, of course, we were right: June 2020’s NICS checks were an absolutely astonishing 3,931,607.

Yes, almost four million NICS checks.

Courtesy NRA-ILA

Now, that number doesn’t represent four million guns purchased. The FBI runs NICS checks for other reasons, including gun transfers. However, we can go ahead and assume that an overwhelming majority of those checks do represent gun sales. We also can go ahead and assume that there’s absolutely no way that all or even most of those gun sales went to citizens who already own several guns. As this article from NRA’s ILA states, “This isn’t a small group of ‘super gun owners’ buying nearly fifty thousand handguns a day. These are your loved ones, your friends, your neighbors who have decided – for one reason or another – that they must be able to rely on themselves.”

Last month, we sarcastically touched on the oh-so-obvious reasons for why this is happening: When rioters are burning down city squares, people buy guns. When the mainstream media insists that there are no rioters burning down city centers when we the people can actually smell the smoke, people buy guns. When you get rid of the police, people will be their own police (and they will buy guns to do it). So this isn’t exactly a shocker. No, this is a tremendous opportunity for the Second Amendment, and we 2A supporters need to step up to the plate.

That’s because this year there have been six million NICS checks so far (and the previous record for an entire year was eight million, so you can see where this is going). We can’t know how many of them are new gun owners, but if even half of them are, well…that would make three million new gun owners this year. By contrast, the NRA–which is and remains hands-down the largest and most powerful Second Amendment advocacy organization in history–claims five million active members in total.

That’s three million people who are learning that owning a gun doesn’t turn you into the blood-crazed nutjob that the gun-grabbers said we gun owners are. That’s three million people who are learning that semi-automatic means semi-automatic, and that the “assault rifle” they just bought isn’t much different from Granddad’s Ruger Ranch Rifle except for its magazine capacity. That’s three million people who are discovering that most of what they have been told about guns and gun ownership was lies.

As we’ve pointed out on our sister publication, Guns and Gadgets Daily, the best way to change someone’s mind about gun rights is to let them discover the truth on their own by taking them shooting. It’s time for all of us to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to introduce all of these new gun owners to the basics of gun safety, of marksmanship, and of self-defense. If you’re comfortable letting it be known among your social circles that you’re a knowledgeable gun owner who’s open to mentoring a newbie, please do so. Many ranges and training courses are still either closed or severely limited, so it’s absolutely critical that we ensure these new gun owners know how to be safe with their firearms.

The year 2020 is shaping up to be something of an annus horribilis…but it just might turn the tide on gun rights for the next generation or two.