Gun sales on Black Friday set a record for the second year – as firearm dealers seeking required background check requests shut down FBI calls centers twice.
The FBI said on Monday that it fielded 154,873 calls on Black Friday, up about 20 percent over last year’s previous one-day record of 129,166,
USA Today reports.
The requests for background checks were so numerous that FBI call centers experienced two brief outages, one lasting 18 minutes and another 14 minutes, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said.
The FBI does not track actual gun sales, but Fischer told USA Today that the number of firearms sold on Friday was likely higher because multiple firearms could be included in one transaction by a single buyer.
Dealers said the continuing gun surge was affected by an increase in women buyers and concerns that lawmakers in President Barack Obama’s second term might impose stricter gun laws, including a ban on assault weapons.
Obama did not offer any such proposals during the campaign.
“With the recent election, some people are making buying decisions just in case something (a new law) happens,” Don Gallardo, manager of Shooter’s World in Phoenix, told USA Today.
Gallardo’s store posted a 10 percent increase in Black Friday sales, he said.
Buyers cited similar reasons right after Obama won his first term in 2008, Gallardo told USA Today.
At Guns Galore in Killeen, Tex., salesman Greg Ebert said his store has seen more purchases by women.
“Women have taken a strong interest in shooting sports,” Ebert told USA Today. “I think they see target shooting and other shooting sports as another form of relaxation.”
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