If the first quarter is any indication of where this election year is going, 2016 should prove to send a strong message to every candidate running their campaign on gun control.

It ain’t happening.

So far, 2016 is on pace to burn past last year’s record of 23 million background checks.

The FBI reported an impressive 7,682,141 background checks in the first quarter this year. That’s a 36% increase from the same period last year, when the FBI reported 5,644,866 background checks.

Kentucky, California, and Indiana continue to dominate the field in terms of total number of background checks completed.

But it’s not just gun sales. Somebody should write the book, “When you give a citizen a gun…” because they’re going to want a concealed carry permit to go with it. Texas has issued it’s 1 millionth concealed carry permit, the number of Illinois FOID cards now surpass 2 million, and every state in the union seems to be buried in applications.

In Moore County, NC, County officials say they have more than 300 back-logged applications waiting to be processed. In Fayetteville, NC, Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office lawyer Ronnie Mitchell says gun permits have surged more than 90%, forcing the Sheriff to ask county commissioners to fund an additional employee to handle firearms permits.

“It’s not just Cumberland County,” Mitchell said. “It seems to be a nationwide phenomenon.”

In West Virginia, the Washington County Sheriff’s Department reported a 90% increase in concealed carry holders in the first quarter of 2016 but Wood County has them beat.

“Early in 2015 we about on average about 120 new applications a month and new permits issued, and over the past six months that’s spiked up to about 150 per month on average,” said Captain Mark King from the Wood County Sheriff’s Department.

According to State Police data accessed by the Macomb Clerk’s Office, Michigan saw a jump of more than 10,000 permits in only 24 days.

One thing is for sure, this country believes in crime control, not gun control.