When the headline contradicts the story

This AP article has a headline:


" Fewer excited gun-buyers in Colo. and Conn."

Okay, then the article goes on to state:

The numbers of checks in Colorado rose from 35,009 in October to 53,453 in December; checks in Connecticut went from 18,761 to 29,246 during the same period.

Emphasis mine

52% increase in Colorado. 55% increase in Connecticut. In other words, more guns bought. Do they require a NICS to buy if you have a permit to carry?

Numbers for other states were listed:

In Georgia, the FBI processed 37,586 requests during October and 78,998 requests in December; Alabama went from 32,850 to 80,576 during the same period.

Georgia 110% increase. Alabama 145% increase.

I guess, technically, they are not outright lying in the headline. There were fewer NICS checks done in Colorado and Connecticut. Then they totally fail math altogether:

Tennessee saw among the highest increase in gun checks at the end of last year, with 91,922 background checks in December, up from 59,840 in November.
Emphasis mine.

That is a 53% jump. Less than Connecticut. I dug around and found Tennessee's October numbers-40,032. (Warning, PDF) Making their increase 130%. Reading further, Louisiana had a 55% increase, too. And those also used Novembers inflated reelection numbers, not Octobers like the previous comparisons.

Using their round numbers of 2.8 million NICS checks in December vs 1.6 million checks in October, the entire country had a 75% increase.

Other facts- 7.1 million NICS checks were done in 4 months of the year. The June to July jump was only 25%, from 1.2 to 1.5 million sales. It would be interesting to do a year to year comparison, once the full totals are released. The FeeBIe .PDF linked above only goes to October 2012.