The FBI received over 200,000 requests for background checks to own a gun on Black Friday, overtaking last year’s single-day record by nearly 10%.
Black Friday, the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday, had previously set records for the most instant FBI background checks in 2015 and 2016.
The database is meant to prevent criminals and other Americans barred from owning guns from purchasing them.
Last week the US Justice Department ordered a full review of the database.
The FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check (NICS) database system said they fielded 203,086 background checks on Black Friday, a day when US retailers mark down prices on their products to kick off the annual holiday gift-shopping period.
The previous record of 185,713 background checks was set on Black Friday a year earlier, according to figures provided by the FBI.
The FBI cautions that “a one-to-one correlation cannot be made” between checks and actual sales, since one background check may yield several gun sales.
They did not indicate what may have caused the uptick in sales.
Source: BBC News
