Despite new assault weapons ban, gun sales increased last year in Illinois

Gun sales in Illinois went up 5% in the past year despite a recently enacted ban on assault weapons, according to data compiled by a national home safety and security news site.

SafeHome , which deems itself as a "trusted authority on home and personal security," said that 504,452 firearms had been sold statewide in 2023, up 5% from similar numbers in 2022. SafeHome used data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's NICS system, which tracks the number of background checks provided in each state across the country.

The data is then included in a formula that counts each check for handguns and long firearms as worth 1.1 purchases and each multiple-gun verification as worth two purchases. According to SafeHome, they looked to examine the impact of gun sales on American society as a whole.

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"By analyzing this data, we aim to provide a clearer picture of gun sales trends and their broader implications for American society," the article said. "We hope that a deeper evaluation of this information can help policymakers and the public better understand this complex issue."

Illinois' 5% increase in projected gun sales was the second most in the United States in 2023, behind North Carolina, which saw a whopping 110% increase in sales.

SafeHome noted that the increase in gun purchases came despite the passage of the Protect Illinois Communities Act , which banned assault weapons from being sold and possessed across the state.

Indeed, the vast majority of background checks on firearms occurred in the early part of 2023, shortly after Gov. JB Pritzker signed the law banning assault weapons. During the first five months of 2023, Illinois had an average of 450,263 different background checks for firearms. In the final seven months, the number went down to 244,274.

Early projections for 2024 show that the new laws, which went into effect on Jan. 1 and survived a legal challenge from pro-gun groups last month, may be having some impact. According to SafeHome, Illinois had 173,562 gun sales during the first four months of the year, and the NICS data shows a lower level of background checks being conducted in that same period, with 241,389 different checks being conducted on average during this period.

Illinois was one of four states to see an increase in gun sales in 2023, with New Hampshire and Florida joining North Carolina as the others to see a jump. However, in per capita sales, Illinois is middle of the pack, with 538 guns sold per 10,000 adult residents. Montana, with 1,586 guns sold per 10,000 residents, topped that list, according to SafeHome.

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How local gun shops are impacted

John Stoor, general manager of Pinnacle Gun and Ammo in Bartonville, said that sales of guns, in particular the sorts of assault weapons slated to be banned by Pritzker upon the signing of the bill, went up significantly in the first half of 2023.

"January of '23, sales were through the roof," Stoor said. "Once that ban was in place, they dipped off quite a bit, probably a 80-90% drop in sales until about August-September 2023 (when) sales started picking up again."

In total, sales have been lagging ever so slightly behind their pace at the beginning of last year and before the assault weapons ban, according to Stoor. He did note that customers and weapons companies have been trying to adapt to this new market in places like Illinois, with customers looking for higher-end – yet still legal – items for purchase.

"Where before we sold a lot of entry-level handguns, firearms and shotguns, now we get more people making deliberate purchases – higher-end handguns, hunting rifles, shotguns," Stoor said. "The customer count has decreased, but the sales have actually increased."

Stoor said that the companies themselves are looking back to nostalgia in some ways to maintain sales, with the return of classic models such as lever action rifles, innovating them for a new generation of firearm owners.

"We've seen some of the manufacturers – Sig Sauer, Glock, Smith & Wesson – innovating and bringing back the classic-type cowboy gun models, making those and just getting people interested in these different types of rifles," Stoor said.

For the most part, Stoor feels positive about the way that the firearms market is evolving for his business and for others, even as the landscape looks significantly different from what it was just a year ago.

"I've got a positive outlook," Stoor said. "I've seen the dip and the resurgence of sales. People are just looking for different things to stay in the sport."

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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Despite new assault weapons ban, gun sales increased last year in Illinois