SMOKIN’ GUN XMAS
Black fri. surge in buyer checks Terror, crime fears said to fuel spike
A RECORD NUMBER of Black Friday shoppers had guns at the top of their Christmas lists, according to the FBI.
Officials at the agency said they processed 185,345 firearms background checks, the most ever in a single day.
On the same day a gunman killed three people, including a police officer during a rampage at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado, the FBI processed 5% more background checks than it did on Black Friday a year ago.
While the federal scrutiny does not mean a gun was purchased, the background checks are seen as the best measure for legal U.S. gun sales.
FBI agents ran two background checks every second.
“Black Friday shattered the single-day record,” FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said.
Background checks take just a few minutes.
“We were certainly busy,” Larry Hyatt, 68, the owner of North Carolina’s Hyatt Guns, told the Daily News.
“Black Friday is big for us every ear, since it coincides with the
typically start of hunting season.”
Hyatt, whose shop is in Charlotte, chalked the record-setting background check numbers to a surge in new gun shops.
More firearms shops are opening across North Carolina as demand for weapons increases with rising crime and terror fears, he said.
The Black Friday figure was more than three times the 2014 daily average of 57,448 per day.
The record-setting figures on Black Friday make it the thirdbusiest gun-buying day on record. There were 175,754 permit applications received on Black Friday
of last year.
Since 1998, when the FBI started processing background checks as part of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, data shows that the bureau has processed requests for more than 220 million firearm purchases.
Gun transactions between private parties — like many at gun shows — generally do not require background checks.
In October, more than 1.9 million background checks were processed.
That month, stocks for two major gun manufacturers — Smith & Wesson, and Sturm, Ruger & Co. — surged after President Obama called for tougher gun laws in the wake of a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Orgeon.
Since Obama took office, gunmakers have had some of their most profitable years despite a rash in mass shootings, including the Planned Parenthood assault and the massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., on Wednesday that killed 14 people.
Background checks reject purchases from anyone who is a fugitive from justice, committed to a mental institution, an illegal immigrant or has been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.
Also on the no-gun list are people who have renounced their U.S. citizenship, have been dishonorably discharged from the armed forces or have unlawfully used a controlled substance.