FBI shows rise in background checks

purchasing guns on Black Friday of this year, it seems there was no letting off by gun-seekers. FBI background check records show December was a record month for gun sales in the United States.

Devon Sustaire with City Pawn Shop in Jacksonville said gun sales at the store reflected the national trend, according to the Jacksonville Progress. “Gun sales were higher than normal this year” he said, believing that a number of factors could have driven the increased rate of sales during the holiday season. “People spend their money on guns as an investment,” he said. “And maybe some people think it’s the end of the world, with 2012 coming.” He said before Christmas there was a five-to-10 minute wait for customers coming in and having background checks. “We’ve never seen that,” he said. According to FBI figures, gun dealers made 1.5 million inquiries to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, also known as NICS, this month. Almost half a million checks were done in just the last six days before Christmas. Two days before Christmas, NICS ran 102,222 background checks, which was the second-busiest day in history. The one-day record was set this year on Black Friday, the big shopping day following Thanksgiving, with 129,166 searches. By comparison, the previous one-day high was set November 28, 2008, when gun dealers made slightly less than 98,000 requests for background searches. It’s not possible to tell exactly how many guns have been purchased because buyers often take home more than one gun, but most people pass the background checks. Only 1.3 percent of the searches result in people being denied permission to buy a weapon, said FBI spokesman Steve Fischer.  ]]>