The single record-breaking day for background checks was Black Friday, when the FBI conducted 185,345 checks.
While these figures don’t show the exact number of weapon purchases, they indicate the scale of overall sales.
Many experts are forecasting that this year will likely beat last year’s record, when 21.1 million FBI checks were registered across the country.
Guns are a popular Christmas present. Under US law, giving a gun as a present doesn’t require a background check, TODAY reported.
“Like any good husband, I asked for the list of Christmas items that you’d like to have and one of the items was a firearm,” Louis Cole, a gun owner, told reporters, adding that, “Above jewelry was a firearm.”
“Ever since the Paris attacks, we’ve had a lot of customers coming in,” Eric Wallace, a manager at Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Georgia, told TODAY. Wallace suggested that people were “Buying first guns, buying guns to protect their homes, their families, and themselves.”
In the wake of repeated high-profile gun killings by people with mental-health issues who have access to assault weapons, a movement to enact common-sense gun laws in the United States has encouraged those who fear the loss of their weaponized security blankets to go out and purchase more guns.
But amendments can take months, if not years, to be implemented.
Currently, gun retailers and companies selling weapon accessories are taking full advantage of the cultural climate, and make higher and higher revenues from people’s concerns.
Not only are guns popular, but also accessories like holsters, concealed carry purses and bullet jewelry.
