National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) background checks for firearms have reached 222,363,898 for the period between November 1998, when the process began, to last month. For the most part, the figure has increased each year.

According to the NICS, these do not represent the sales of guns because of different state laws and “purchase scenarios.” However, the figures are not a bad proxy.

The program was mandated by Congress for the following reason:

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, is all about saving lives and protecting people from harm—by not letting guns fall into the wrong hands. It also ensures the timely transfer of firearms to eligible gun buyers.

Mandated by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 and launched by the FBI on November 30, 1998, NICS is used by Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to instantly determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to buy firearms.

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Based on its screening method, the system should collect almost every legal firearm purchase in the United States. However, in June, the U.S. Department of Justice found a single seller who had trafficked in a large number of guns:

A Burlington County, New Jersey, man today admitted selling to a Camden drug dealer and other criminals in the Camden area at least 200 firearms that he purchased with cash from other illicit firearms dealers, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Multiply that against what are probably hundreds of other illegal arms sellers.

One point that gun control experts have made about the violent use of guns is that checks can catch people who should not own weapons, but they cannot catch people who legally or illegally own hundreds of thousands of guns already. The NICS information and some data about illegal sales demonstrate just how hugely difficult that problem is.

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