The FBI said on Saturday that it was inundated with over 200,000 requests for background checks for gun purchases on Black Friday – setting a single day record.
The bureau said that it received 203,086 requests for background checks on Friday, smashing the previous all-time single day record of 185,713 in 2016 and 185,345 in 2015.
Those records were also set on Black Friday, according to USA Today.
Background checks are required for anyone seeking to purchase a gun at a federally licensed dealer.
While the number of requests for background checks is high, the number of guns sold is likely even higher since one customer often seeks to buy more than one weapon.
The FBI said on Saturday that it was inundated with over 200,000 requests for background checks for gun purchases on Black Friday – setting a single day record. The image above shows rifles for sale at a gun shop in Merrimack, New Hampshire on November 5
The statistic was reported by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday ordered a review of the NICS, a government database used for background checks on gun buyers, after a man who killed 26 people in a Texas church was left off the system despite having a criminal record.
Sessions said the November 5 shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, by Devin Kelley, a former Air Force serviceman who had a 2012 conviction for domestic assault, showed that not all the necessary information was being added to the NICS.
In a statement, Sessions said he was directing the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ‘to do a comprehensive review of the NICS and report back to me the steps we can take to ensure that those who are prohibited from purchasing firearms are prevented from doing so.’
Kelley was found guilty by an Air Force court-martial in 2012 of assaulting his first wife and a stepson. Federal law prohibits anyone from selling a gun to someone who has been convicted of a crime involving domestic violence against a spouse or child.
The statistic was reported by the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Attorney General Jeff Sessions (left) on Wednesday ordered a review of the NICS after Devin Kelley (right), a man who killed 26 people in a Texas church, was left off the system despite having a criminal record
Kelley, who killed himself during a getaway attempt after the shooting, bought guns from a store in Texas in 2016 and 2017, although it is not clear whether those were the weapons used in the massacre. The Sutherland Springs church is seen after the shooting on November 6
The Air Force has said it failed to provide information as required about Kelley’s criminal history to the FBI’s criminal database.
Sessions said he was directing the FBI and ATF to determine if the Defense Department and other government agencies were properly reporting information to the database.
Kelley, who killed himself during a getaway attempt after the shooting, bought guns from a store in Texas in 2016 and 2017, although it is not clear whether those were the weapons used in the massacre.
The US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee said earlier this month it would investigate the Air Force’s failure to notify the FBI of Kelley’s criminal record.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, said he planned to introduce legislation to ensure that federal agencies put required criminal records into the database.