Gun background checks increased in February

The number of background checks conducted by the FBI for firearm purchases jumped nationally by nearly 100,000 last month, reaching the second-highest total for February in the 20 years the FBI has been compiling the numbers.

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The FBI background checks don't represent a 1-for-1 correlation with gun sales because buyers aren't limited to purchasing one firearm per background check call. One call can cover the purchase of multiple firearms by the same person.

Total sales figures for firearms in the nation don't exist. The best yardstick of sales is the number of background checks done when a gun is purchased.

Certain online purchases among private sellers are not subject to background checks.

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Brian Rafn, director of research and lead portfolio manager at Morgan-Dempsey Capital Management in Menomonee Falls, estimates that there are 455 million guns in the hands of U.S. civilians.

Morgan-Dempsey owns gun company stocks and follows the industry closely.

The FBI background check program, known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), was mandated by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993. The system was launched by the FBI on Nov. 30, 1998, and is used by federal firearms licensees to instantly determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to buy firearms.

RELATED: FBI background checks listed by state

While one month's FBI numbers don't necessarily establish a trend, the data may be an indication that folks are buying more firearms amid calls for tighter restrictions on gun purchases in the wake of a shooting that killed 17 at a high school in Florida on Feb. 14.

For the month, the FBI reported 2.3 million background checks for firearm purchases.

The total is second only to 2016 when the FBI recorded 2.6 million background check calls during February.

The 2016 number came after then-President Barack Obama made an emotional gun control speech from the East Room of the White House in January.

RELATED: Reaction to President Obama speech

That speech resulted in an upswing in gun sales, said Steve Lauer, owner of Lauer Custom Weaponry in Chippewa Falls. Lauer's major area of business is manufacturing protective coatings for firearms, but he also takes the pulse of the market nationwide.

"We're talking to people all over the United States and all over the world all the time, and what seems to happen in cases like this, where they are talking gun control, is people in the big cities tend to get quite a bit more worried about it than the people out in rural America," Lauer said.

Lauer says the sales bump this past February is not as dramatic as what happened after the Obama speech in 2016.

"We all know gun sales can be very politically driven," Lauer said. "It's not strong like it was years ago. Obama really drove it."

So many guns have been sold in recent years in the U.S. — the FBI conducted 25.2 million background checks in 2017 and 27.5 million in 2016 — that the sales trend may have peaked.

Rafn described it as "a market that is kind of grinding sideways."

Rafn estimates that the gun business, including accessories such as holsters, shooting clothing and ammunition, is a $52 billion industry in the U.S. "It's a fairly big industry," he said.

The mood in gun circles seems to be that President Donald Trump is less willing to implement new gun regulations than Obama was, according to Lauer.

"When Obama was in office, they were scared of him," Lauer said. "He'd sign anything," relating to new gun regulations.

Wisconsin numbers up, too

In Wisconsin, the state handles background checks for handguns using the NICS system. The FBI handles background checks for long guns such as rifles and shotguns purchased in Wisconsin.

The state Department of Justice experienced a spike in background checks in February, Johnny Koremenos, an agency spokesman, said via email.

"The week of the shooting was the highest week of the year for the Handgun Hotline, with 2,979 calls. There were 735 new CCW (concealed carry) applications that week," Koremenos said.

Then, during the week of Feb. 19, "there were 1,037 new CCW applications, which is the highest number of new applications since March of 2017," Koremenos said. (There was a terrorist attack in London in March 2017 in which five people, including a police officer, were killed and 50 people were injured. In addition to politics, terror attacks have historically led to a spike in gun sales.)

Total calls to the state's Handgun Hotline for the week ended Feb. 24 was 3,722.

For the week ended March 3, the number of calls to the Handgun Hotline totaled 4,279, an increase of 15% from the previous week, Koremenos said.