Gun Sales Collapse to 2.2 Million. Here Are the Numbers by State.

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Dec 3, 10:30AM EST

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Gun Sales Collapse to 2.2 Million. Here Are the Numbers by State. — © Scott Olson / Getty Images News via Getty Images

Gun sales plunged in November, down 25% from the same month in 2020 to 2,217,458, according to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The annual U.S. total for the first 11 months of 2021 is flat with the same period last year at 35.7 million. Based on data for the past several months, 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, the rise has tapered off.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation tracks gun sales and publishes a list of how many are handled as part of its 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 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.

It is not clear why sales have started to fall. However, the reason for the surge last year into the first half of 2021 has been analyzed closely. According to The Guardian, about one in five new gun sales are to first-time buyers.

The composition of gun buyers also has changed. CNN reports: “In 2020, half of all gun buyers were women, researchers say. One-fifth were Hispanic, and one-fifth were Black, according to the Northeastern University & Harvard Injury Control Research Center.” The COVID-19 pandemic and recent social unrest also have been given as reasons.
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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 November was Kentucky, with 372,237. 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 11 months of this year:

Alabama (854,080)
Alaska (83,567)
Arizona (515,778)
Arkansas (259,459)
California (1,351,076)
Colorado (574,023)
Connecticut (257,179)
Delaware (62,907)
District of Columbia (11,660)
Florida (1,560,757)
Georgia (738,311)
Guam (4,138)
Hawaii (16,245)
Idaho (248,986)
Illinois (8,036,858)
Indiana (1,698,198)
Iowa (245,795)
Kansas (207,939)
Kentucky (3,473,035)
Louisiana (360,707)
Maine (117,261)
Mariana Islands (323)
Maryland (246,090)
Massachusetts (240,538)
Michigan (893,501)
Minnesota (873,639)
Mississippi (286,796)
Missouri (572,875)
Montana (145,842)
Nebraska (82,564)
Nevada (171,980)
New Hampshire (138,693)
New Jersey (209,839)
New Mexico (177,022)
New York (425,778)
North Carolina (716,542)
North Dakota (73,996)
Ohio (776,813)
Oklahoma (373,193)
Oregon (414,935)
Pennsylvania (1,287,678)
Puerto Rico (67,489)
Rhode Island (35,144)
South Carolina (443,095)
South Dakota (97,847)
Tennessee (871,590)
Texas (1,794,401)
Utah (1,090,028)
Vermont (46,966)
Virgin Islands (1,965)
Virginia (592,584)
Washington (667,831)
West Virginia (201,157)
Wisconsin (719,957)
Wyoming (76,182)

Click here to read about the state that sells the most guns.
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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.