Statistics suggest gun purchases in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the country may have reached an all-time high last year.
A record 16.4 million background checks of prospective gun buyers were performed by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in 2011, two million more than in 2010. U.S. firearms dealers submitted more than 1.5 million requests for background checks in December alone, the most ever in a month, according to FBI data.
In New Jersey, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, about 60,000 background checks were requested last year, up roughly 20 percent from 2010. The state requires a firearms identification card to buy a rifle or shotgun and an ID card and permit to buy a handgun.
In Pennsylvania, where neither a firearms identification card nor a purchase permit is required to buy a weapon, nearly 719,000 checks were requested, an increase of about 15 percent from 2010.
The 2011 NICS figures were the highest ever recorded for either state.
Background checks do not equal gun sales, cautions the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the nation's largest grassroots organization for gun-violence prevention. About 1.3 percent of searches typically result in denial for the person seeking permission to buy a weapon, according to the FBI. And not all who are approved end up buying guns.
Some gun owners undergo multiple checks, which could lead to inflated sales estimates, said Caroline Brewer, a spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign. Kentucky, she said, runs fresh background checks monthly on owners with concealed-weapon permits.
There might not be a growing number of gun owners, Brewer said: "Fewer and fewer people have more and more guns. Twenty percent of gun owners possess about 65 percent of the guns. . . . They're stockpiling."
