Starvin Larry

Just going by NICS background checks from 1998-2018,there were 280,482,910 background checks performed.

Not every check was for just one firearm,as you can buy multiple firearms using a single background check.

NICS checks-19998-2018

How many millions of guns were sold prior to NICS being implemented?

Just using modern firearms -(after metallic cartridges replaced black powder muzzleloaders)-as a guess,starting in late 1800’s with guns like say the Winchester ’92 and ’94,and Colt revolvers,there were likely at least another roughly 300 million firearms-or more- manufactured and sold in the approximately 100 years between modern firearms being mass produced and the NICS check being implemented.

The late WeaponsMan did a post on this topic here

From that post-

“We now have 329 million firearms, with fairly trustworthy data and estimates in which all the most conservative assumptions were used, introduced to the US on-the-books market from 1999-2016.”

“Absent a better idea…