Gun sales last month totaled roughly 1.4 million, according to the latest data from the FBI National Instance Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting (SAAF) said the figure represented a 42.2 percent year-over-year drop – or roughly 1 million less compared with the same month last year.

Despite the drop, June still stands as the second-highest for the year. The SAAF said the decline in sales was more pronounced in handguns than in long guns. June was the second month of decline in firearm sales.

“The overall firearms sales pace thus far this year amounts to about 10.6 million units, as contrasted to 11.1 million for the first six months of 2020,” the SAAF said.

The company said gun sales this year were still high when compared to the first six months of 2019, which had recorded around 6.6 million firearms sold. The SAAF noted that those figures were before the pandemic and before the presidential election campaign of 2020.

The number of checks conducted by NICS has continued to skyrocket. Last year, the total number of checks grew to about 39,695,315 – a new record. Analysts if the trend continues this year, 2021 may outpace last year’s checks and set a new record. NICS data is used by companies and analysts to come up with a rough estimate of the total number of firearms sold around the country. It has to be noted that each check does not equate to a single sale.