Six paragraphs into a Thursday report on “plummeting” U.S. gun sales over the past few years, published by The Trace, a pro-gun control news organ backed by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg, one finds a startling—perhaps unintentional—acknowledgement that Democrats are not friendly to the Second Amendment rights of American gun owners.
“The downturn (in gun sales) is likely to continue under President Donald Trump,” the story observes. “Gun sales tend to fall when a Republican occupies the White House, as the specter of stricter gun control measures subsides. Gun sales fell 17 percent during the first three years of Trump’s first term.”
Gun sales went up sharply during the final year of Trump’s first term, 2020, the year the nation experienced the COVID-19 panic, accompanied by the George Floyd riots and a decline in police manpower.
While Joe Biden was in the White House, he pushed for tougher gun restrictions, while claiming to be “a Second Amendment guy.”
American gun owners turned out in big numbers to put Trump back in office, as noted by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms one day after the November election. They didn’t like Biden and they disliked Kamala Harris even more.
The Trace report, while saying gun sales have been declining, still admitted, “Despite the downswing, Americans’ appetite for firearms remains well above historic norms. Sales last year were still higher than in any pre-pandemic year except 2016 and 2013. And on the supply side, gunmakers produced 3 million more guns in 2023 than they did in 2019 and nearly 10 million more than at the turn of the century.”
Raw numbers from the FBI’s National Instant Check System (NICS) show background checks peaked in 2020 at 39,695,315. By last year, the raw number of NICS checks had declined to 28,097,205.
Both the FBI and the National Shooting Sports Foundation are quick to note that these raw numbers do not reflect the number of actual firearms transactions. Each month when the FBI releases its NICS data, NSSF publishes an “adjusted” number which more closely reflects the actual number of checks connected to a firearm sale.
The fact Democrats don’t care for the rights of gun owners can be seen across the country, especially in states where they control the legislatures and governor’s offices.
For example, as TGM reported Wednesday, Democrats in Colorado are pushing strict gun control in the form of a ban on guns that accept detachable magazines.
In Washington, Democrats are behind a slate of gun control laws, including their most recent effort, to require gun owners and buyers to have liability insurance.
Speaking of the Evergreen State, The Trace article included some information which may not be helpful to anti-gun-rights Democrats in the Legislature. The article refers to a study about suicide which says the risk of suicide peaks “immediately after the first acquisition, but 52% of all suicides by firearm among handgun owners occurred more than 1 year after acquisition.” This suggests that waiting periods and permit-to-purchase requirements to allow a “cooling-off period” really don’t reduce the risk of “impulsive” suicide attempts.
The Trace report also notes, in the second-to-last paragraph that homicides have declined nationally. Thus coincides with the number of privately-owned firearms going up, and a continued strong level of licensed concealed carry, along with the adoption of so-called “Constitutional Carry” laws by 29 states, allowing the carrying of defensive firearms without a permit.
The one exception seems to be Washington state, where the number of homicides has actually climbed since 2014, when the first of several strict gun controls was adopted, by passage of Initiative 594, requiring so-called “universal background checks.” Another, stricter anti-gun initiative was passed in 2018, and Democrats have pushed through bans on “high-capacity magazines” and “assault weapons.” Despite fewer murders reported in 2024, the Evergreen State body count of 317—according to data from Washington State Homicide, a site on “X” not associated with law enforcement—was still well above the 172 murders reported by the FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2014.
