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 (NICS). 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 300 million checks that have been done since 1998, there have only been 1.5 million denials. The data is, therefore, the best proxy for U.S. gun sales available.

Gun sales have soared in the past year. They have reached 32,131,914 through October. That is more than the 28,369,750 for all of last year. Growing civil unrest may have prompted people to buy guns for personal and family protection. Another theory is that chaos brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic is a major cause. A new UC Davis School of Medicine study about fear of violence reports that: “The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated persistent structural, economic, and social inequities in the conditions that contribute to violence and its consequences.”

Who is buying these guns? A New York Times analysis shows that buyers cut across almost all demographic groups. Gun ownership has continued to be a flashpoint across the country, as the debate about who should own a gun and what kind of guns should be lawful continues, as it has for decades.

The rise in gun sales from 2019 to 2020 is not an anomaly. The number of Gun sales has increased most years since 1999. At the current pace, 2020 sales will reach over 35 million. Sales first topped 25 million in 2016, 20 million in 2013, 15 million in 2011 and 10 million in 2006. The first full year the FBI kept data was 1999, when sales were 9,138,123.

The rate of gun sales is by no means uniform from state to state, nor is the growth level. Among all states, Illinois has posted the highest sales so far this year, by far, at 6,074,299. That is almost 18% of U.S. gun sales in 2020, although Illinois has less than 4% of the nation’s population. Kentucky ranked second in sales at 2,545,801, which is just shy of 8% of the U.S. 2020 gun sales figure this year. Kentucky has 1.3% of the U.S. population.

By a similar measure, sales in California this year are relatively low at 1,334,819, which is 4% of the national figure. Almost 12% of Americans live in California.

These are the number of guns sold by state, with the figures for October and the first 10 months of 2020:

State/Territory	October Sales	YTD Sales
Illinois	473,595	6,074,298
Kentucky	181,425	2,545,801
Texas	192,162	1,922,440
Florida	175,783	1,562,269
Indiana	227,056	1,430,409
California	151,359	1,334,819
Pennsylvania	145,680	1,176,578
Utah	119,117	1,012,831
Alabama	80,934	892,709
Michigan	108,742	868,190
Tennessee	79,718	807,824
Ohio	85,170	797,346
Minnesota	95,792	792,153
Georgia	77,979	736,874
North Carolina	81,490	725,338
Virginia	67,233	684,705
Washington	71,759	635,474
Wisconsin	72,837	598,343
Missouri	58,729	576,319
Colorado	59,132	558,906
Arizona	52,521	556,467
South Carolina	47,060	431,032
Oregon	44,350	424,704
New York	50,434	413,447
Oklahoma	35,083	381,384
Louisiana	35,224	342,841
Mississippi	27,815	294,546
Arkansas	27,177	262,353
Maryland	33,842	241,946
Idaho	24,014	228,078
West Virginia	21,199	216,001
Iowa	22,738	215,362
Massachusetts	27,772	210,718
Kansas	19,430	201,093
Nevada	18,838	183,668
Connecticut	21,481	176,385
New Mexico	16,739	171,109
New Hampshire	15,340	143,440
Montana	15,414	140,194
New Jersey	21,495	133,788
Maine	14,836	113,193
South Dakota	11,563	91,168
Nebraska	9,068	82,622
Alaska	7,564	81,546
Wyoming	7,464	71,929
North Dakota	8,115	69,497
Delaware	7,430	62,823
Vermont	5,214	47,898
Rhode Island	5,178	42,401
Puerto Rico	4,595	23,628
Hawaii	2,113	16,374
District of Columbia	1,507	9,311
Guam	354	2,941
Virgin Islands	222	1,211
Mariana Islands	28	180

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