Guns were more likely than ever to land beneath Christmas trees in 2011, as the FBI reported record-breaking firearm sales in the days leading up to the holiday.
Gun dealers requested more than 1.5 million background checks on buyers in December, the highest single-month figure since the stats began being kept — and one that topped the previous record, set in November 2011, CNN reported.
More than 100,000 background checks — a requirement for a gun sale — were ordered on December 23, making it the second all-time busiest day for gun buying. The first was set on Black Friday in 2011, when nearly 130,000 requests were made.
Nearly 500,000 of the background checks that were requested in December were ordered in the six days prior to Christmas.
Given that most would-be purchasers pass the background checks, the number of guns that were actually sold could be even higher, if customers bought more than one gun. Only 1.3% of customers are denied permission to buy a weapon, FBI spokesman Steve Fischer told CNN.
The increase in gun sales could be linked to Americans’ fears of shrinking police forces, according to a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.
“I think there’s an increased realization that when something bad occurs, it’s going to be them and the criminal,” the spokesman, Andrew Arulanandam, told CNN.
Arulanandam also attributed the spike in gun sales to an increased interest in sports that involve firearms, such as skeet shooting.
According to Caroline Brewer of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the surge comes from repeat buyers, and doesn’t necessarily mean more people are buying guns, CNN reported.
“The research we’ve seen indicates fewer and fewer people are owning more and more guns,” Brewer said. “All the trends indicate the number of Americans who own guns has declined.
“It would appear because of fear-mongering by the NRA since Obama’s election that people are adding more guns to their arsenals out of fear Obama and the Democrats will take away their guns, which is absurd.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/gun-sales-break-records-christmas-fbi-reports-gun-dealers-ordered-1-5m-background-checks-article-1.1000013#ixzz1iQ82tiYE
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