Gun sales were brisk again in February, with background checks for gun purchases rising over February of last year.
The February National Shooting Sports Foundation-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,265,320 is a 3.5 percent increase from the 1,222,980 in February 2025. For comparison, the unadjusted February 2026 FBI NICS figure of 1,933,972 reflects a 13.5 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,236,637 in February 2025.
In fact, the new figure of over 1 million monthly gun sales continued in February, marking the seventh consecutive month with more than 1 million background checks, after the single month in July 2025 with fewer than 1 million. As most readers likely recall, before July, when the number fell below 1 million, the previous streak of months with over 1 million background checks had lasted nearly six years.
“February’s adjusted background checks show that the desire for lawful gun ownership is alive and well,” said Mark Oliva, NSSF managing director of public affairs. “When instances of lawlessness and concerns for personal safety arise, Americans will respond by exercising their Second Amendment rights to both keep and bear arms.”
According to the NSSF, the top five states for overall Adjusted NICS checks and handgun NICS checks in February were Texas, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Top states for long gun NICS checks were the same but in a different order: Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, California, and Virginia.
In the category of unintended consequences, gun purchases increased substantially in Virginia. Gun owners in that state have found themselves under siege, being pummeled by anti-gun bill after bill in the state legislature this session.
“We continue to see the trend of gun owners buying the firearms of their choosing in states where Second Amendment rights are threatened and before that right is unconstitutionally deprived of them,” Oliva said. “Virginia’s background checks were more than 23,000 higher in February than they were a year ago. That’s an increase of more than 55 percent, which followed a nearly 26 percent increase last month in the face of a looming ban on the most popular centerfire rifle in America—the Modern Sporting Rifle.”
Additionally, 2026 is proving to be the Year of the Suppressor, with over 200,000 National Firearms Act (NFA) checks in February alone, representing a 167 percent increase over the same time period last year.
“This proves there was pent-up demand and the wisdom of removing high-cost barriers of entry to exercising rights,” Oliva said.
Although not directly correlated to firearms sales, the NSSF-adjusted NICS data offer an additional view of current market conditions. Besides other uses, NICS is used to verify transactions for the sale or transfer of new or used firearms.
Notably, more than half the states—28 to be exact—have at least one qualified alternative permit, which, under the Brady Act, allows the permit holder, who has undergone a background check to obtain the permit, to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer without a separate additional background check for that transfer. The number of NICS checks in these states does not include these legal transfers based on qualifying permits, so the actual number of gun sales is likely much higher.
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