FBI: Record gun sales checks in 2019, NICS at all-time high

FBI gun background checks, linked closely to weapons sales, recorded the second highest month ever in December, propelling 2019’s count to the most since the National Instant Criminal Background Check System began in 1998.

The agency Monday morning said that it recorded 28,369,750 background checks in 2019, a 3% jump over the last record set in 2016.
In December there were 2,936,894 NICS checks, the second highest month ever.

The 2016 record, pushed high in part because gun control advocate Hillary Rodham Clinton was expected to beat Donald Trump, was not expected to be steamrolled this year.

But gun shops around the nation saw a surge in sales due to highly publicized shootings, cheap prices and an increase in states eager to impose controls on sales, bans and even confiscations of weapons.