Gun Boom: FBI Ran 187,585 Background Checks on Black Friday Alone

The FBI conducted 187,585 National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) checks on gun sales and transfers on Black Friday 2021 alone.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reports the Black Friday 2021 NICS checks surpassed those of 2020, which came in at 186,645.

Moreover, NSSF noted that the FBI performed a total of 687,788 NICS checks during the entire week, including those on Black Friday.

NSSF president Joe Bartozzi commented on the tremendous number of background checks conducted last week:

This figure of over 687,000 background checks is truly remarkable. This year has already been shaping up to be the second strongest year for firearm sales on record, second only to 2020’s record-breaking number of 21 million background checks for a firearm sale. We anticipate, based on annual data, that firearm sales will rise during the final month of the year coinciding with hunting seasons and holiday sales. This figure, though, underscores the appetite for lawful firearm ownership in America and the resilience of the firearm and ammunition industry to meet that demand.

Background checks have been relatively high during 2021, with the number of NICS checks in October proving the be the second-highest number of checks ever for the month of October.

Breitbart News noted similar data for September 2021, which came in with the second-most NICS checks of any September in history.

There were 2,626,389 NICS checks conducted in September, second only to the 2,892,115 conducted in September 2020.

August 2021 and July 2021 both witnessed the second-highest number of NICS checks for their respective months as well.

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 and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.