Happiness Is a Warm Christmas Gun: Record Number of Americans Bought Guns on Black Friday
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on December 2, 2011
Record number of guns were sold on this year's Black Friday
In the 1983 holiday film The Christmas Story, all that little Ralphie wanted for Christmas was a Red Ryder BB gun. Far more than just BB guns were sold in the United States on Black Friday — a new record for Black Friday firearm sales in America was set, per newly released FBI data background check info.
I was almost one of those gun shoppers, having been thinking about getting my 18-year-old son a shotgun for Christmas. I’ve not yet decided… still have time before Christmas Eve.
There are alarming rumblings that Team Obama and the liberal miscreants in Congress may be working on curtailing Americans’ Second Amendment rights by banning workhorse rifles… this might be a good time to invest in a few.
H/t to Gateway Pundit, reported by Opposing Views:
Data derived from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) shows that November 25, 2011, Black Friday, had the most background checks for firearm purchases in a single day (129,166) with a 32 percent increase over the previous NICS high (November 28, 2008). Federal law requires FBI background checks on all individuals purchasing firearms from federally licensed retailers.
These statistics represent the number of firearm background checks initiated through NICS. They do not represent the number of firearms sold. Based on varying state laws and purchase scenarios, a one-to-one correlation cannot be made between a firearm background check and a firearm sale.
“More citizens lawfully exercising their Second Amendment right to carry a firearm, coupled with a growing awareness since the Supreme Court’s decisions in Heller and McDonald that the Second Amendment protects an individual fundamental right to keep and bear arms, helps to explain the continuing rise in sales of firearms and firearm-related products throughout the Untied States,” said National Shooting Sports Foundation Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lawrence G. Keane. “Clearly, Black Friday was a big day for both the firearms industry and our nation’s law-abiding gun owners.”
From USA Today, Guns are a big seller on Black Friday:
In addition to the sleek flat-screen televisions, smartphones, computers and cut-rate designer clothing, Black Friday’s shopping legions seized on another hot item for 2011: guns.
Gun dealers flooded the FBI with background check requests for prospective buyers last Friday, smashing the single-day, all-time high by 32%, according to bureau records.
Deputy Assistant FBI Director Jerry Pender said the checks, required by federal law, surged to 129,166 during the day, far surpassing the previous high of 97,848 on Black Friday of 2008.
The actual number of firearms sold last Friday is likely higher because multiple firearms can be included in a transaction by a single buyer. And the FBI does not track actual gun sales.
Some gun industry analysts attributed the unusual surge to a convergence of factors, including an increasing number of first-time buyers seeking firearms for protection and women who are being drawn to sport shooting and hunting.
Larry Keane, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said 25% of the purchases typically involve first-time buyers, many of them women.
“I think there also is a burgeoning awakening of the American public that they do have a constitutional right to own guns,” Keane said.
Yet Keane said last Friday’s number appeared to defy complete explanation. “It’s really pretty amazing,” he said.
While the federal government has been responsible for (and is being investigated for) the selling of thousands of assault weapons, like AK-47s, to dangerous Mexican drug cartels in the botched Fast and Operation operation, American citizens’ right to bear arms is being decimnated by the Obama administration.
This sobering information was reported last week by WND, Backlash against Obama’s rifle ban to target Congress:
A stealth plan by the Obama administration to classify hundreds of thousands of workhorse rifles used by the U.S. military and public alike as dangerous has prompted a grass-roots campaign to save the weapons, and a key U.S. senator has lent his voice to the effort.
“If we’re going to reverse President Obama’s Million Rifle Ban, gun owners have to turn the heat up on Congress now before it’s too late,” writes Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in a campaign launched by National Association for Gun Rights.
“Please sign your Firearms Freedom Survey and put yourself squarely against President Obama’s Million Rifle Ban.”The effort urges taxpayers to commit to voting against any senator who “votes to maintain Barack Obama’s M1 Garand Rifle Ban.”
You may recall that Obama’s EPA tried to ban traditional ammunition last summer, with some crazed poppycock that bullets would impact the environment and destroy Mother Gaia. Team Obama backpedaled pretty darned quick on that one once outrage grew.
More federal government nonsense: Chore Boy scubbers are being targeted by the federal government. Good grief.
The ATF reportedly is banning kitchen scrub-pab stockpiles because they could be used as part of a homemade gun “silencer.”
And a pencil could be a lethal weapon…
About the author
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.