Record Broken for Gun Sales - Black Friday 2015

**Emptymag** · December 1st, 2015, 09:51 PM

FBI: Black Friday 2015 Broke Record for Gun Sales

A post-Thanksgiving shopping bonanza capped back-to-back record-breaking months for background check requests.

There are three kinds of events that gun dealers can count on to boost sales: mass shootings, terrorist attacks, and Black Friday sales.

As measured by the number of background checks processed by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), this year’s string of high-profile shootings had already encouraged record-breaking sales figures even before anecdotal reports emerged about a new binge set off by the Paris attacks. In June, July, September, and again in October, the division recorded new monthly records for the number of background checks it performed.

Meanwhile, since the system was established, Black Friday has consistently ranked near the top of the list for the most background checks performed in a single day, claiming three of the top 10 highest volumes for a 24-hour period from 1998–2014.

The confluence of those two trend lines came together on November 27, spokesman Stephen Fischer tells The Trace. The Bureau says this Black Friday shattered the single-day record with 185,345 background checks processed in a 24-hour period — or slightly more than two background checks every second. (The total fell just short of the Bureau’s estimate of 190,000 checks.)

Friday’s record-breaking number of checks reshuffled a ranking heavy on new entries: the second busiest day for background checks ever was recorded just last year, on Black Friday 2014. On November 28, 2014, the FBI performed 175,754 checks, only 1,416 fewer than December 21, 2012, which came exactly a week after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Black Fridays in 2013 and 2012 rank at #10 and #5, respectively. The rest of the top 10 slots are held by several dates immediately following Sandy Hook, and a slew a days in late February and early March 2014, when North Carolina submitted an unusually large number of checks for concealed carry permits.

Read full story and see chart HERE...