When Trump won the election, most people believed that the Obama inspired boom in gun sales was over. Early gun sales statistics in 2017 seemed to support that theory. Now the final numbers are in and it turns out early speculation was incorrect. 2017 was a fantastic year for gun sales.
Paul Bedard reports at the Washington Examiner:
2017 gun sales surprise: Second best ever, 25 million, more ‘socially acceptable’
The long predicted crash of the gun market following President Trump’s election victory over gun-banner Hillary Rodham Clinton never showed up and 2017 became the second highest year of sales after 2016, the FBI reported Wednesday.
According to the agency, there were 25,235,215 gun background checks conducted in 2017, and many in the industry say the National Instant Criminal Background Check System is the best gauge of sales.
Only 2016 was better since the system began in 1998. More than 27.5 million background checks were recorded last year.
The year of gun sales surprised many especially in May and August when monthly sales records were set. December was the top month with 2,586,138 checks taking place.
Tom Knighton of Bearing Arms has more on this:
