Federal firearm background checks are performed via the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to ensure transactions do not violate federal or state laws.
While background check statistics are commonly used to approximate firearm purchases, they do not represent actual numbers of guns sold. Federal law does not require checks for private sales between individuals and multiple guns are often purchased after a single background check, for example.
Select a state for numbers of background checks requested each month since 2010.