Culture Shift: 25 Million Americans Bought A Gun For The First Time In The Last Four Years

Twenty-five million. That’s not a number to scoff at because it is more than the population of the state of Florida.

By Larry Keane for the NSSF

That’s the number of law-abiding Americans who over the past four years have decided to jump off the fence and fully exercise their Second Amendment rights by purchasing their first firearm.

That’s right – approximately 25 million law-abiding Americans, from all different races, genders, backgrounds, religions and ethnicities, went to their local firearm retailer and bought a gun for the first time between 2021 and today. What’s more is it’s clear these first-time buyers aren’t just paying the cashier and walking out with a new piece of hardware. They’re showing an interest in getting trained and educated to be safe, responsible firearm owners.

New Data

NSSF just announced the final 2024 full year total for National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) verifications. For clarification, NSSF adjusts the total monthly FBI NICS numbers to siphon out background checks that are processed for non-firearm purchases. December’s monthly total came in at a little more than 1.6 million checks, slightly less than last December’s nearly 1.8 million.

With December’s total finalized, the full-year 2024 total became clear and settled at over 15.2 million background checks for the sale of firearms at retail. As some media have noted, this yearly total is lower than last year’s 15.8 million and each year before since 2020 when COVID pandemic lockdowns, riots and looting were common and defund the police policies were taking hold. Americans surged to the firearm retail counter that year and purchased 21.1 million firearms. However, the 2024 total of 15.2 million is still comfortably a continuation of an upward trend line in firearm purchases seen since 2010 and before.

“Still, the NSSF report indicates sales remained above the million mark for the 65th month in a row. The trade group touted that number as evidence that the market remains relatively strong compared to previous eras,” The Reload wrote in analysis.

First Time Buyers Club

Prior to 2024’s presidential election, NSSF noted that more than 22.4 million law-abiding Americans had become first-time firearm owners since President Joe Biden won his term in The White House. That number represents an entire state of Florida becoming brand new gun owners in such a short period of time. Now with last year officially coming to an end, that figure ticked up even more to approximately 25 million.

NSSF works constantly with our members to understand who is buying firearms and why. The trend throughout 2020-2023 was that Americans overwhelmingly decided to embrace the Second Amendment and become gun owners, seek education, training and practice. Local media reports abound of sold-out and jampacked new gun owner training and educational classes across the country.

Segmented out by year, it’s unsurprising the initial shock and feelings of unease in 2020 led to the largest surge in first-time buyers. Midway through 2020, first-time gun owners accounted for approximately 40 percent of buyers, according to retailers. The “normal” is usually somewhere around 20-24 percent. All told in 2020, there were approximately 8.4 million new first-time gun owners.

In 2021, the initial surge in first-timers subsided a bit and the number totaled about 5.4 million first-time gun buyers. The percentage dropped to around 30 percent of all buyers. 2022 totaled approximately 4.2 million and 2023 actually rose just a bit to 4.3 million, according to industry data. 2024’s final number very conservatively comes in at around a tick above 3 million, bringing the four-year grand total to 25 million.

Most Diverse Gun-Owning Community Ever

Media still widely misrepresents American gun owners as old, white guys but recent trends in firearm purchasing couldn’t put this caricature to rest any better. Over the past four years, the surge of new first-time buyers has made the gun-owning community the most diverse population of gun owners ever. That’s a good thing – as the Second Amendment is for everyone.

The surge in African American gun buyers in the 2020-2022 period was pronounced. African American women in particular were the fastest growing demographic of gun owners in the country. The Cut highlighted this trend with an article titled, “The New Face of American Gun Ownership – Black women are pushing against the (white, rural, and male) stereotype.”

“In recent years, story after story has furthered the narrative that Black women are the fastest-growing group of gun owners in the country,” The Cut’s report said, adding that Black women now make up a majority of the 40,000 members of the National African American Gun Association (NAAGA).

Similar trends were seen among several other demographics. Hispanic Americans purchased firearms at high rates, as did Asian Americans too.

Liberal gun owners have grown their ranks by large numbers in the past four years, too, proving the Second Amendment isn’t just for conservatives or Republicans.

And no one can forget the horrendous terrorist attack by Hamas in Isreal on Oct. 7, 2023. That heinous attack spurred on a large surge in the number of Jewish Americans who purchased firearms and embraced their Constitutional right to possess a firearm for self-defense.

For any number of reasons – all of them good ones – Americans in the past four years have turned to the Constitution and their God-given right to protect themselves, their families and their property from threats of violence. They are doing so like never before in America and it’s NSSF’s job to ensure they continued to have the ability to do so. It’s a job we take seriously and are proud to do.

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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