Gun sales surge during pandemic, with July seeing record background checks

Gun sales in the country have surged in recent months amid the coronavirus pandemic, with last month seeing a record number of background checks for the month of July, CNN reported on Monday, citing recent data released from the FBI.

The new figures show that more than 3.63 million firearm background checks were carried out by the agency last month, a number CNN reports is the third highest on record.

The FBI completed its highest number of firearm background checks the month before, according to CNN, 3.93 million, surpassing what was briefly a record from March at 3.74 million background checks.

From March to July, the agency completed a total of just over 17.3 million, the new data shows. The agency had completed about 11.7 million background checks over the same five-month span last year.