Here Are The States Where Tons Of Americans Are Getting Gun Background Checks

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Smith & Wesson just reduced its outlook for gun sales, largely due to falling demand for long guns like rifles and shotguns.

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However, management says demand for smaller handguns like pistols and revolvers remains robust.

In order to ensure that the wrong people didn't get their hands on guns, the FBI started the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (or simply, NICS) in 1998 to "determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to buy firearms or explosives".

There have been over 100 million checks in the last decade, which has led to over 700,000 people getting denied from purchasing a gun, according to the FBI website.

Using NICS data from the FBI, Business Insider decided to see which states saw the highest number of gun background checks per 100 people. The stats are 2014 through July.

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BI note: This data does not measure the number of guns that were purchased in a state, and does not necessarily reflect the number of guns actually owned in a given state.

Here's a map of the data:

gun maps

Business Insider, FBI

You'll notice that states in the northeast, southwest, and along the west coast have registered significantly less background checks than states in the southeast. The lowest number of background checks overall was in Washington D.C., which has 0.04 checks per 100 capita.

You can see that Kentucky stands out as a major outlier. While all other states are between 0-10 check per 100 people, and according to the NICS's data there's been over 40.2 checks per 100 people in Kentucky.

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You might inclined to think that Kentucky has an irregularly large number of gun enthusiasts, but there's actually a simple explanation. Kentucky's numbers are distorted because gun owners with state-issued concealed weapons permits have monthly background checks.

The states with the 5 lowest background checks were capita were...

  • New Jersey (0.6)
  • Hawaii (0.7)
  • New York (1.1)
  • Rhode Island (1.1)
  • Maryland (1.5)

The states with the 5 highest background checks (excluding Kentucky) were...

  • North Carolina (9.8)
  • Alabama (7.2)
  • Montana (6.4)
  • West Virginia (6.3)
  • Alaska (6.3)