New Mexico’s pandemic gun sales boom might be over

However background checks have been on the rise over the previous few many years, information exhibits

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, curiosity in authorized gun purchases in New Mexico spiked. However new FBI background examine information means that curiosity might need waned a bit.

Whereas there’s no method to know precisely what number of firearms are bought in New Mexico, a rely of background checks can provide a tough sense of how many individuals are occupied with buying weapons. In New Mexico, you want a background examine to buy a firearm, a rule that utilized to firearms purchased from retail shops, in addition to from personal sellers.

In the course of the pandemic, New Mexico charted a excessive of 24,571 background checks for firearms submitted to the FBI in March of 2020. That’s 46% extra checks than throughout March of 2019.

Now, that pandemic-related spike in background checks appears to have handed. The newest information from the FBI exhibits that solely 18,396 checks had been executed in New Mexico in March of 2022.

That doesn’t imply extra weapons had been essentially bought in New Mexico. In spite of everything, somebody may get a background examine then resolve they don’t really need to purchase a gun. And naturally, somebody may try to purchase a gun from somebody they know with no background examine.

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New Mexico’s pandemic-related peak in firearms background checks might have handed. However the common variety of background checks has elevated over the previous few many years. Knowledge from FBI NICS.

A evaluation of the previous few many years of knowledge exhibits that curiosity in gun purchases tends to be cyclical. That’s, the variety of month-to-month background checks tends to peak in spring and hit a low in summer season.

However a number of instances since 2000, there have been booms within the variety of background checks, comparable to throughout the pandemic. One peak in curiosity was on the finish of 2008. After Barack Obama was elected president, information retailers and researchers found that Individuals rushed to purchase weapons.

The info exhibits one other spike on the finish of 2012. That coincides with the Sandy Hook Elementary College capturing. But it surely’s not totally clear whether or not or not the rise in background checks is immediately related to the varsity capturing.

Some researchers have proven that some will increase in gun gross sales look like related to mass shootings. A 2019 investigation printed on the JAMA Community discovered that just about 21% of the main mass capturing occasions from 1998 to 2016 had been related to a rise in gun gross sales.

Total, the variety of firearm background checks in New Mexico has been on the rise for the reason that early 2000s, the FBI information exhibits. Twenty years in the past, roughly 5,000 to 10,000 background checks had been executed every month.

June of 2015 was the final time there have been lower than 10,000 checks in a month in New Mexico. Now, 10,000 to twenty,000 checks monthly is the norm. And that growing pattern isn’t simply taking place in New Mexico. Throughout the U.S., the entire variety of background checks has risen for the reason that early 2000s.

Which may imply that extra individuals are occupied with shopping for weapons. Or it’d imply that extra individuals are going by way of the legally mandated checks, as an alternative of buying weapons illegally.