Firearm background checks linked to sales totaled 1,402,422 in October 2026, a 7.9 percent rise from October 2025 and the third-highest October on record after 2020 and 2021, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported. The figures preceded the November 3 elections that gave Democrats both chambers of Congress, so President Donald Trump will confront a Democrat-controlled Congress in January. Overall NICS volume fell by a bit more than 8 percent because Kentucky and Illinois sharply cut monthly permit recheck batches that once ran 250,000 to 300,000. Congress reduced the National Firearms Act tax from 200 dollars to zero, and the Trump administration said it will not prosecute possession of silencers, short barreled rifles, and short barreled shotguns after a Fifth Circuit Court ruled the restrictions unconstitutional as exercises of taxing power. November and December have long been strong sales months because of hunting seasons and Christmas.