Adjusted NICS Checks Rise 7.9 Percent in October 2026, Raw FBI Checks Fall

Adjusted background checks for firearm transfers rose 7.9 percent in October 2026, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) said in a Nov. 4 release distributed through The Shooting Wire. The trade association’s adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) count for the month was 1,402,422, up from 1,299,312 in October 2025. That gain follows a 2.3 percent decline in September.

The FBI’s raw count fell. The bureau’s month-by-year table, updated Nov. 2, lists 2,221,553 checks for October 2026 against 2,344,310 in October 2025, a 5.2 percent drop, and 21,652,247 checks for January through October, down 0.4 percent from the same ten months of 2025. NSSF’s release cites a different unadjusted FBI figure for October, 2,104,063, down 8.1 percent from 2,289,774, and the release does not say how that count differs from the bureau’s table.

The two series diverge over permits. NSSF strips out NICS permit checks and permit rechecks, which states run when they issue concealed-carry permits and when they check their active permit holders, and it has subtracted the rechecks since February 2016, the release says. Measured against NSSF’s own unadjusted figure, the adjustment removed a third of October’s checks. Twenty-eight states have at least one permit that lets the holder buy from a licensed dealer without a fresh check, and NSSF does not add those transfers back. The FBI’s table carries its standing note that the figures “do not represent the number of firearms sold.”

The bureau’s state table for 2026 shows where the permit traffic sits. Illinois logged 213,360 checks in October, the most of any state, and 2,301,632 for the year to date, ahead of Texas at 169,586 for the month and 1,410,586 for the year. Florida followed at 122,508, California at 116,855 and Pennsylvania at 97,287. NSSF’s adjusted ranking for October drops Illinois from the top five, which it lists as Texas, Florida, California, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, California and Tennessee led the FBI’s handgun checks, and Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, California and Wisconsin led long-gun checks.

October’s gain follows a mixed third quarter. NSSF’s adjusted total for July through September was 3,329,270, up 2.5 percent from 3,249,497, its Oct. 7 release said. Sturm, Ruger & Co. reported the same series in its third-quarter 10-Q and set it beside its own channel data: estimated sales from distributors to retailers fell 4 percent in the quarter, to 355,800 units, while adjusted NICS rose 2 percent.

NSSF said in the September release that, beginning with the November issue reporting October data, it will report the monthly count of National Firearms Act (NFA) checks, run on applications to make or transfer NFA items, in a separate communication with more detail. September’s NFA count was 149,614, up 129.2 percent from 65,273 a year earlier. The FBI has processed 548,899,543 checks since NICS opened in November 1998, and the November 2026 figures are expected in early December 2026.