The number of licensed gun holders in Texas and the Austin metro area has jumped by nearly 25 percent since early last year, according to recent data from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Texas has 1,226,368 million active gun license holders as of late October, according to state records received by the Leader through an open records request. That number is 24 percent higher than the 937,419 gun license holders in January 2016, according to a report by the San Antonio News-Express.

Williamson County residents played a role in that increase in gun ownership. In Hutto and Taylor, gun licenses rose 33 percent.

There are 24,516 active license holders in Williamson County compared to 30,979 in Travis County, according to state data. In nearby Bastrop County, there are 4,033 active gun license holders.

The rise in gun ownership over the past two years reflects a Washington Post report that the FBI received a record number of instant gun background checks on Black Friday, Nov. 24. The federal agency received 203,086 requests — nearly a 10 percent increase from last year.

That record number of background checks came days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed the FBI and ATF to look at potential problems in the national background check system, according to the report.

In May, Gov. Abbott signed legislation lowering the cost of getting a handgun license from $140 to $40. According to the Texas Tribune, the new fee is expected to cost the state $12.6 million in 2018.

According to a story in the journal Science, gun sales increase following mass shootings. Those increase in sales also lead to increases in accidental gun deaths in the United States, the report says.

The uptick in licensed gun holders occurred during numerous mass shootings across the nation, including one in a Sutherland Springs church that ended in more than two dozen killed by a lone gunman. A lapse in the Air Force not providing appropriate documentation to federal law enforcement allowed the gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, to purchase the assault rifle used in the attack.

That mass shooting prompted local law enforcement to reach out to churches to prepare for active shooters. Both Round Rock Police Chief Allen Banks and Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody invited church representatives to summits going over safety procedures and ways to make their churches more secure.