Gun Sales Plunge: Here Are Each State’s Figures

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Oct 5, 11:05AM EDT

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Gun Sales Plunge: Here Are Each State’s Figures — © chonticha wat / iStock via Getty Images

After several years during which U.S. gun sales rose, capped by a 2020 surge blamed mostly on the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest, in 2021, figures started to level. They currently are dropping sharply, according to FBI data. Guns sales declined over 10% year over year in September to 2,226,389. Total 2021 sales may drop below the 2020 annual figure.

For the first three quarters of 2021, gun sales reached 30,467,508. That compared to 28,626,509 for the same period last year. However, fourth-quarter 2020 guns sales were strong and, based on current trends, are unlikely to be matched this October, November and December.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation tracks gun sales and publishes a list of how many are handled as part of its National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Each month, the figures are reported by state. Nearly everyone put through this system qualifies as a buyer. People who are excluded usually have criminal records. Of the more than 350 million checks that have been done since 1998, there have only been 2 million denials. Therefore, the data is the best proxy for U.S. gun sales available.

The New York Times points out that pandemic gun sales are largely over. While people who already own guns have been buying more, there is a new group of buyers. “New preliminary data from Northeastern University and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center show that about a fifth of all Americans who bought guns last year were first-time gun owners.” More of these buyers are people of color and women.
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NPR commented on another trend: “Most often, the first-timers are purchasing a semiautomatic handgun, outpacing the second-most-purchased firearm, shotguns, by 2 to 1, according to [the National Shooting Sports Foundation].”

Despite what could be a drop this year, gun sales have increased most years since 1999. Annual sales first topped 25 million in 2016, 20 million in 2013, 15 million in 2011 and 10 million in 2006. In 1999, the first full year the FBI kept data, sales totaled 9,138,123.

The state with the most gun sales in September was Kentucky with 370,706. That is 17% of national sales, though the state has only 1.3% of the population.

Here are total sales by state or territory for the first nine months of this year:

Alabama (713,423)
Alaska (68,653)
Arizona (438,322)
Arkansas (214,197)
California (1,123,955)
Colorado (478,331)
Connecticut (216,146)
Delaware (52,352)
District of Columbia (9,030)
Florida (1,305,111)
Georgia (627,128)
Guam (3,349)
Hawaii (13,107)
Idaho (205,910)
Illinois (7,481,507)
Indiana (1,468,192)
Iowa (209,181)
Kansas (170,476)
Kentucky (2,730,364)
Louisiana (294,273)
Maine (94,671)
Mariana Islands (254)
Maryland (206,959)
Massachusetts (203,042)
Michigan (748,584)
Minnesota (719,163)
Mississippi (233,742)
Missouri (473,180)
Montana (119,161)
Nebraska (68,593)
Nevada (146,628)
New Hampshire (116,526)
New Jersey (181,478)
New Mexico (148,540)
New York (351,254)
North Carolina (603,914)
North Dakota (60,362)
Ohio (644,917)
Oklahoma (305,898)
Oregon (343,606)
Pennsylvania (1,068,542)
Puerto Rico (53,380)
Rhode Island (30,020)
South Carolina (370,614)
South Dakota (79,081)
Tennessee (723,700)
Texas (1,496,999)
Utah (916,042)
Vermont (38,983)
Virgin Islands (1,615)
Virginia (488,208)
Washington (550,260)
West Virginia (163,937)
Wisconsin (584,957)
Wyoming (62,914)

Click here to see which are the top states for gun sales.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.