In November, approximately 2.1 million guns were sold — hand guns and rifles — which is an increase of 49% over November 2019, reported Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting (SAAF).

“While November 2020 continues the year’s record-breaking pace – now standing at well over 20 million units – this month’s 49% year-over-year increase is by far the smallest such monthly increase since March this year,” said SAAF Chief Economist Jurgen Brauer in a press release. The SAAF’s firearms unit sales numbers are based on the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, with some adjustments. As explained by the SAAF: “[T]he FBI’s raw numbers (for November, some 3,602,296) cannot be taken at face value as large numbers of background checks are unrelated to end-user sales. As a case in point, in November the state of Illinois conducted about 500,000 so-called permit checks and rechecks alone, whereas end-user unit sales at firearms retailers likely amounted to about 56,000. “SAAF makes certain other adjustments to the data based on retailer reports and other information; nonetheless, the estimates still likely understate the true number of sales.”  [full article]