NFA background checks more than doubled in September, gun industry trade group says; North Carolina ranks fourth

As of 11:32 a.m. ET, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026

Background checks for items regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA) more than doubled in September compared with a year earlier, according to monthly figures from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearm industry's trade association.

NSSF counted 149,614 NFA checks in September 2026, up 129.2% from 65,273 in September 2025. The group says the figure covers Form 1 and Form 4 checks. Form 1 is the application to make an NFA item and Form 4 is the application to transfer one.

North Carolina ranked fourth among the states with 7,336 NFA checks. That was one check behind Georgia's 7,337. Texas led with 18,852, followed by Florida at 11,771. Pennsylvania was fifth at 6,102.

Overall checks dipped

The rise in NFA checks happened while the broader market was flat to slightly down. NSSF's adjusted count of all background checks for September was 1,152,077, down 2.3% from 1,179,424 a year earlier. The FBI's raw, unadjusted September total was 1,843,700, down 0.8% from 1,858,763, according to NSSF's release; GROKsiNEWS.com could not open the FBI's own NICS report to check it.

For the third quarter overall, NSSF's adjusted checks totaled 3,329,270, up 2.5% from the same quarter in 2025.

Why it matters

The NFA covers suppressors, short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, "any other weapons," machine guns and destructive devices. A federal tax law passed in July 2025 cut the NFA making and transfer tax to $0 for every NFA category except machine guns and destructive devices, starting Jan. 1, 2026, according to an ATF filing with the White House budget office. NSSF's release does not say what caused the September increase.

The September numbers come from before ATF's October guidance on NFA registration, which GROKsiNEWS.com has covered separately, so they do not show any effect from that change.

NSSF says that starting with its November report, which covers October, it will send the NFA figures out separately with more detail.

How to read these numbers

The data comes with several caveats, most of them stated by NSSF itself:

• Checks are not sales. NSSF says the figures count background checks started through the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), not guns sold. It adds that a "one-to-one correlation cannot be made between a firearm background check and a firearm sale".
• "Adjusted" means trimmed. NSSF removes permit checks and permit rechecks, such as those states run for concealed-carry permit applications, to get closer to actual purchase activity. The FBI's raw total is much higher.
• Some sales never show up. NSSF says 28 states have at least one permit that lets the holder buy from a licensed dealer without a new NICS check. Those sales are not counted, and NSSF does not adjust for them.
• Where the NFA count comes from is not spelled out. The release calls the NFA numbers "Monthly NFA checks (Form 1 and 4)" but does not explain how NSSF gathers them. NSSF first added the NFA category to its monthly report in 2026.
• The rankings are raw totals. The state list is a straight count, not adjusted for population.