NICS Firearms Background Checks Increase 17 Percent for May Over Last Year

The number of FBI background checks for firearms rose in May for the second straight month, according to the latest report on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

According to the FBI NICS report, there were 2.3 million background checks for firearms—17 percent higher than the same month last year.

There are also more in April with 2.3 million background checks, which also rose compared to the same time period last year.

NICS is a national system that checks available records on persons who may be disqualified from receiving firearms. Since 2005, there has been a steady increase per year of the number of checks conducted overall. Total checks since the FBI began recording them in November 1998 total 316 million.