This Tuesday (04) the NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) numbers for September 2022 were released. The index represents the intention to buy firearms in the United States through background checks performed by the FBI. In September 2022 there were 2.47 million background checks.
The number is the third highest for the month ever recorded, considering the entire historical series that began in 1998, surpassed only by September of the “off-curve” years 2021 and 2020, which evidences a continued high demand in the period for firearms in the US. Background checks are not necessarily related to gun sales, but they are the best existing indicator to estimate the intention to purchase.
The high demand by Americans can bring even more significant results for the arms industry in the world, including for the Brazilian Taurus, considered the largest seller of small arms in the world and the most imported in the largest and most competitive market of the United States.
After reaching levels of demand in 2020 and 2021 never seen before, the conditions of the North American arms market changed a little in the first half of this year, and a certain slowdown in the intention to purchase could be perceived.
Even so, the NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) accumulated this year remained above the historical average of the years prior to the pandemic. Considering the period from January to June, the Adjusted NICS reached 8.1 million consultations in 2022, a number 35% higher than the average recorded in the same period from 2000 to 2021.
Taurus has been gaining market share in the North American market, with growing consumer demand for the brand, so that, attentive to this movement, the distributors in this country increased their stocks of Taurus products.
With the reduction in the rhythm of demand and the situation of high inflation in the USA – 9.1% in the accumulated last 12 months to June/22, the highest rate since 1981 – the distributors adjusted their orders, starting to work with their stocks and thus temporarily reducing new orders.
Even so, Taurus maintains a back-order of 462 thousand units. In total, in the first semester of 2022, 1 million Taurus arms were sold, 770 thousand units of which were in the USA, remaining the main market for Taurus.
Taking as a basis the first half of each year between 2018 and 2022, Taurus sales in the USA registered an average compound growth rate (CAGR) of 10% per year in the period, compared to the NICS CAGR increase of 5%, which evidences the company’s market gain in this country over the course of the last few years.
*** Translated by the DEFCONPress FYI Team ***