Background checks near all-time high

The unconventional idea that gun-friendly President Donald Trump is good for the firearms industry has apparently won out.

The 25 million firearms background checks conducted across the country in 2017 was the second-highest total since the FBI began monitoring the records in 1999.

The only year with more background checks was 2016 — when campaign debates about gun control may have increased the urgency some gun buyers felt to arm themselves.

“Because 2016 featured a presidential election in which one presidential candidate promised more gun control on the federal level, it was an all-time record year and no one in the industry expected a repeat of that,” said Michael Bazinet, the spokesman for the 13,000-member National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Newtown-based trade association for the firearms industry. “Even so, 2017 was a good year on an historical basis showing underlying strength for the shooting sports and for Americans wanting to exercise their Second Amendment rights.”

The strong year for the gun industry in 2017 was not apparent in Connecticut, which has adopted some of the toughest gun control measures in the country after the 2012 massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook School.

Background checks in Connecticut totaled 182,000 in 2017, the lowest total since 2010.

A Second Amendment advocate argued the state’s government was to blame.

“I know a lot of gun rights enthusiasts have moved out the state,” said Scott Wilson, president of the 30,000-member Connecticut Citizens Defense League, Connecticut’s largest gun rights group. “The high taxes and the economy are not conducive to people having funds to purchase firearms, and a lot of the types of firearms people like to buy are banned in Connecticut.”

After the 2016 elections, observers warned that gun sales could slump with a Republican president who supports gun rights and a GOP congress, since gun buyers would feel less urgency to make new purchases.