The Trace’s report last week begins ominously: “Demand for guns skyrocketed in the United States five years ago as the country grappled with COVID-19, social unrest, and a contentious presidential election. Now, that boom appears to be ending.”
The outlet then compares years of average gun sales to years of record gun sales, noting more guns were sold during years of record gun sales.
They also look at specific states, like Washington, where Democrat gun controls have banned the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms, thereby lowering the numbering of such semiautomatic firearms being sold.
The Trace points to gun sales during the civil unrest that was experienced during COVID years and quotes Jonathan Metzl, director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, saying, “What we saw in 2020 and 2021 were not sustainable from a market standpoint. But also, many more people have guns now, and so the market of potential consumers is a lot smaller than it was during the pandemic.”
The outlet references this “downtown” and predicts it will continue throughout President Trump’s term. Then, out of nowhere, The Trace notes, “Sales last year were still higher than in any pre-pandemic year except 2016 and 2013. And on the supply side, gunmakers produced 3 million more guns in 2023 than they did in 2019 and nearly 10 million more than at the turn of the century.”
On January 7, 2025, Breitbart News pointed to National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) numbers showing over 15.2 million National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks performed for gun sales at retail in 2024,
The NSSF data also showed that December 2024 was the 65th consecutive month with over 1 million NICS checks for gun sales.
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, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
