August Is National Shooting Sports Month

In case you haven't heard, August is National Shooting Sports Month.

This is the eighth National Shooting Sports Month. 

From the NSSF:

NSSF, the firearm industry trade association, invites everyone to celebrate the shooting sports during the 2025 National Shooting Sports Month this August. Whether you’re an experienced marksman, a first-time gun owner or someone simply curious about the shooting sports, there’s no better time to get involved, improve your skills and introduce someone new to the range.

Now in its eighth year, National Shooting Sports Month encourages all Americans to experience the excitement of target shooting while promoting safe and responsible firearm use. Ranges, retailers, manufacturers and industry partners across the country are joining forces to host special events, training sessions and promotions throughout the month.

President Trump has issued a message on National Shooting Sports Month.

It begins with:

From the earliest days of our great national story, hunters, fishers, sportsmen, and gun owners have carried forth a storied legacy of recreation and competition, proudly embodying our timeless principles of liberty, responsibility, and self-reliance.  This National Shooting Sports Month, my Administration honors these cherished American traditions—and we pledge to keep them alive and flourishing for generations to come.

To read the full Presidential message, go here. 

NSSF Hails Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act

The National Shooting Sports Association (NSSF) hails the introduction of H.R. 1181 that protects the privacy of firearms purchases.

The NSSF posted:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, hails the introduction of H.R. 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.V.), which would ban the use of a firearm retailer-specific Merchant Category Code (MCC). The legislation would protect the Second Amendment privacy of firearm and ammunition purchasers from financial service and payment card providers compiling purchase history that has already proven to be exploited by the federal government for political purposes.

Rep. Moore is joined by Congressmen Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), Andy Barr (R-Ky.) and 23 additional co-sponsors.

To read more, go here. 

2021: Expect Gun Sales To Soar

Above, guns for sale at the Albuquerque Cabela's. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Gun and ammunition sales went through the roof in 2020. We can expect more of the same, possibly even more so, this year.

The Arizona Daily Sun has an article on this. They think gun sales will soar this year if Biden ends up at the White House.

They wrote:

There are a lot of adjectives you can use to describe 2020. Just like all those who survived the 1929 stock market crash and subsequent economic depression, 2020 will be burned into the collective memories of 350 million Americans as their 1929 moment.

Rioting, looting, the Cancel and Woke movements, COVID-19, the move to decriminalize criminal behavior combined with the defunding police movement, leading to a marked increase in, you guessed it, gun sales.

Are shooting sports, like all outdoor activity, seeing a marked increase in popularity, or are more people worried about their family's safety? A bit of both?

Regardless, the federal background check system reports an incredible 19.1 million gun sales through the end of November. The National Shooting Sports Foundation reports that over 7.5 million of those purchasers are new gun owners.

Beyond this showing strong support for the 2nd Amendment, the on-the-street impact has been a marked lack of inventory of firearms and ammunition across the nation's retail stores. When supplies do arrive at any store, the stock is often depleted the day it is placed on the shelves.

To read more, go here. 

Another Record Set In November For Gun Sales

Above, an Albuquerque, New Mexico gun store. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Guns are still flying off the shelves in gun stores around the country. This has been the case this past year and November set another record in gun sales.

Bearing Arms reported:

The Great Gun Run of 2020 continued at a record-setting pace in November, according to new analysis from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The firearms industry trade group estimates that over the course of the past month there were 1,949,141 background checks performed on gun sales; a whopping 45.2% increase over November of 2019 and the most guns sales ever in the month of November.

The NSSF reports that, to date, there’ve been 19.1 million background checks conducted on gun sales in 2020, shattering the previous record high of 15.7 million NICS checks on gun sales in 2016. The number of new gun owners also continues to increase, according to the NSSF, with an estimated 7.7-million Americans picking up a firearm for the first time so far this year.

To read more, go here.