Gun sales have been in decline for several months, and in July they dipped below a threshold not seen for six years.
According to National Instant Background Check System (NICS) data compiled and adjusted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), Americans bought fewer than one million weapons last month.
What does this mean? Is the sky falling on Second Amendment freedoms?
2020 and beyond saw a historic spike in US gun sales
July’s total of 978,731 was an eight percent fall from last July and indicative of a larger trend.
It is no secret that firearm transactions skyrocketed in 2020 and for a long time after. Law-abiding citizens exercised their Second Amendment rights in numbers never before seen as social unrest and COVID lockdowns emerged.
Sales topped 1.75 million in July 2020 and stayed above the one-million mark for another year. But the political climate in 2025 is radically different than the one gun owners faced previously.
At least for the time being, the threat of more federal gun control has retreated
For one thing, there is a very low likelihood that more onerous gun control measures are coming from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The weaponization of the embattled agency is on the wane, if not eradicated.
This means most Americans do not face the prospect of anti-gunners systematically destroying gun rights on a large scale. The fear of losing this essential freedom drove sales during the previous administration and kept them high.
That is subject to change, of course, and the political climate will undoubtedly shift in coming months and years.
But the lack of an immediate threat and the intense surge in gun sales undoubtedly softened the market for the moment.
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