By Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets Columnist

For the second time in three months, the FBI broke its record for gun sales, concealed carry, and other firearms background checks in March.

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System conducted 4,691,738 checks, an all-time high. It broke the record set in January of 4,317,804.

Gun sales generally track with the NICS numbers, though the FBI doesn’t make public how many were for gun purchases. Gun industry groups typically release those numbers after the FBI.

After the FBI release, for example, Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting reported that sales are set to break the yearly record of 22.8 million in 2021. “For the first quarter of 2021 as a whole, about 5.9 million firearms were sold as opposed to 5.2 million in the first quarter of 2020. If this rate of sales were to be sustained throughout 2021, last year’s record sales of 22.8 million would be broken,” they said.

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