This chart of FBI background checks on gun sales over the last 25 years provides an imperfect but useful proxy for tracking gun sales in the US. It shows a steady increase in gun sales, with notable spikes in response to events such as the election of Obama, his reelection, the Sandy Hook school shooting, the San Bernardino mass shooting, and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. The number of guns in the US is rising, but the percentage of Americans who actually have guns is under 50% and has not increased in the same way. This suggests that the rise in gun sales is not necessarily due to more people buying guns, but rather to existing gun owners buying more guns.