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Gun Sales Topped 2.5 Million Last Month: This Is the Number for Every State

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: February 10, 2022 11:30 am

Gun violence continues at a rapid clip in America. According to the Gun Violence Archive, gun violence deaths already have reached 4,706 this year. The murder rate rose sharply in 2021, particularly in large U.S. cities.

Programs meant to give people incentives to turn in guns cannot make much of a dent in ownership. About 400 million guns are in the hands of civilians, police and the military. Programs to trade guns for cash usually only bring in a few hundred people.

Gun sales, using the NICS Firearms Background Check as a proxy, reached 38,876,673 last year. This was down slightly from the record set in 2020 of 39,695,315.

One fact about recent gun purchases stands out. According to The Economist, “Of the 7.5m Americans who bought firearms for the first time between January 2019 and April 2021—as gun-buying surged nationwide—half were female, a fifth black and a fifth Hispanic, according to a recent study by Matthew Miller of Northeastern University and his co-authors.”

There are several theories about the sharp rise in gun sales over the past two years. Among them is the violence in American cities during protests. Another is the fear that people might have to protect their property during the pandemic, even if this is absurd.

Inexplicably, gun sales collapsed in January, compared to January last year. The 2022 figure is at 2,591,588, compared to last year’s 4,317,804. That means the 2022 number was only 60% of the figure for 2021. That was the lowest January total since 2019.

Gun sales vary widely from state to state. The is no broadly accepted reason for this. For example, gun sales in Illinois totaled 473,953. That is 18% of the NICS Firearms Background Check total.

These are the January gun sales figures for all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico:

• Alabama (62,764)
• Alaska (4,986)
• Arizona (34,855)
• Arkansas (17,487)
• California (104,282)
• Colorado (40,897)
• Connecticut (18,473)
• Delaware (4,596)
• District of Columbia (1,418)
• Florida (112,827)
• Georgia (48,062)
• Hawaii (1,358)
• Idaho (15,947)
• Illinois (473,953)
• Indiana (111,333)
• Iowa (22,011)
• Kansas (14,630)
• Kentucky (354,595)
• Louisiana (27,768)
• Maine (7,239)
• Maryland (17,340)
• Massachusetts (17,297)
• Michigan (62,731)
• Minnesota (65,564)
• Mississippi (19,312)
• Missouri (38,691)
• Montana (9,052)
• Nebraska (5,904)
• Nevada (13,648)
• New Hampshire (9,481)
• New Jersey (13,063)
• New Mexico (12,417)
• New York (29,536)
• North Carolina (50,952)
• North Dakota (5,064)
• Ohio (50,625)
• Oklahoma (27,273)
• Oregon (30,035)
• Pennsylvania (93,298)
• Puerto Rico (5,778)
• Rhode Island (2,139)
• South Carolina (29,123)
• South Dakota (6,536)
• Tennessee (62,111)
• Texas (127,737)
• Utah (80,486)
• Vermont (3,184)
• Virginia (42,218)
• Washington (52,914)
• West Virginia (13,050)
• Wisconsin (51,816)
• Wyoming (4,827)

Click here to see each state’s share of the 39 million guns Americans bought last year.