Gun sales tend to drop when a Republican occupies the White House, as fears that gun laws will be tightened abate. In the first three years of Donald Trump’s first term, gun sales dropped 17 percent. But as Trump’s recent economic policies spark fears of a recession — a concern the president has sidestepped — firearm purchasing trends may be different in his second term.
It’s impossible to point to a single reason for the ebb and flow of gun sales, but we have seen increases in conjunction with economic crises. Sales increased around the 2008 financial crisis, the Black Monday of 2011, and, of course, the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Gun sales plummeted in 2024, when 6.5 million fewer firearms were sold, and so far, they have remained low throughout the beginning of 2025. An estimated 1.21 million guns were sold in February, according to The Trace’s gun sales tracker, which is down 9 percent from the same time last year.
Want to look at the data for yourself? Head over to the Gun Violence Data Hub’s brand new data library, which provides downloadable, contextualized datasets related to firearms — including gun sales. You can find that entry here.
From The Trace
The Trace Expands Gun Violence Data Hub With New Data Library: The Hub’s new tool launches with nine datasets.
Philadelphia Is Experiencing a Remarkable Drop in Bloodshed. Federal Funding Cuts Threaten That Progress: The double punch of the Trump presidency and the end of pandemic relief money leaves a key component of Philly’s success up in the air.
Teens Are More Likely to Arm Themselves in Cluttered, Violence-Plagued Neighborhoods, Research Finds: A recent analysis looks into factors that contribute to perceived community disorder, and the role of mental health treatment in stemming gun violence.
What to Know Today
New research from the University of Colorado, Boulder, found that 7 percent of adults in the United States — or 1 in 15 people — reported being present at the scene of a mass shooting, defined as events in which four or more people are shot. Two percent reported being injured in a mass shooting, which included being shot, hit by shrapnel, trampled by those fleeing the scene, and other related injuries. The study showed that Gen Z is at higher risk of direct exposure to a mass shooting. [JAMA Network Open/The Denver Post]
Chuck’s Gun Shop — perhaps the Chicago area’s most notorious firearms retailer — appears to have closed. The Riverdale, Illinois, store was at one point the most prolific crime gun seller in the nation. In 1999, Chuck’s was a defendant in a $433 million lawsuit that former Mayor Richard M. Daley brought against suburban gun shops for selling to “straw purchasers.” The store was also included in a 2015 lawsuit which sought to force suburbs to regulate gun dealers. Though both lawsuits were unsuccessful, gun safety activists see the closing as a “win for Chicago.” [Chicago Sun-Times]
Secret Service agents shot and critically wounded a 27-year-old Indiana man near the White House on Sunday morning, the agency said. Authorities allege that the man was carrying a BB gun and “folding cell phone handgun” at the time of the shooting and that he had a rifle and ammunition in a vehicle he drove to Washington, D.C. Law enforcement in the man’s home state had flagged him as a potential suicide risk. [The Washington Post/NPR]
Law enforcement agencies across the United States are reconsidering the use of the Sig Sauer P320 handgun after the reported number of unintentional discharges continues to rise. Since the P320s release in 2014, more than 100 people have alleged that the gun fired without the trigger being pulled, and at least 80 people were injured in those shootings. SIG Sauer has maintained that the incidents were the result of unsafe handling and that the P320 is safe to use. So far, the Milwaukee and Dallas police departments and the SEPTA transit police in Philadelphia, as well as agencies in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin, have stopped using the P320. [Stateline]
In Philadelphia, the Positive Movement Entertainment Drumline is helping young people “put down their guns, and join the drill team and pick up some drums.” The organization was created in 2011 by Tony Royster, who grew up in an area with regular gun violence; it became a drill team in 2014. Since then, the drumline has worked to prevent violence by providing young people with an outlet and helping them express themselves. [WHYY]
In New York City, shootings are at record lows, officials say. According to Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s Police Department, there were fewer shootings within the first two months of the year than in the same period in “recorded history.” Adams and other officials believe the success comes from efforts to remove illegal firearms. [Gothamist]
Data Point
21.8 million — the estimated number of guns Americans bought in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. [The Trace]
Non Sequitur
Photographers Are on a Mission to Fix Wikipedia’s Famously Bad Celebrity Portraits
Wikipedia celebrity portraits are known to be unflattering, but WikiPortraits is aiming to end that tradition. [404 Media]
