Report: 186,000+ Firearm Background Checks on Black Friday 2020

Over 186,000 firearm background checks were performed on Black Friday 2020, making it the fourth-highest one-day total for National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks on record.

USA Today reported that there were 186,645 NICS checks on Black Friday 2020.

Forbes observed this year’s Black Friday shoppers would be met by “lean inventories and Covid-19 restrictions,” noting that Friday was the day North Carolina’s mask mandate took effect. The outlet also noted that lockdowns in California were not helpful to gun sales.

For example, Danielle Jaymes, general manager of Poway, California’s Poway Weapons and Gear Range, said, “[On] Black Friday we were down about 50% versus last year. We were still busy, but we were down 50% because California is on lockdown. We could only allow a certain number of people inside at a time, so it really hindered what we can do.”

This year has been a record for NICS checks in America. On November 9, 2020, the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) reported that the number of checks conducted January 2o20 through October 2020 alone represented “13% more checks than the previous busiest year for the NICS office.”

The number of background checks conducted on a given Black Friday or during a given month do not tell the full story on gun sales, as multiple guns may be purchased with each background check. (A background check is conducted on the buyer, not on the gun[s] he or she wishes to buy.) Yet background checks do give some indication regarding the demand for firearms.

And with the tally that represents the fourth-highest single day ever for background checks, Black Friday 2020 was a day in which guns were in high demand.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.