By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
In a remarkably strong showing, the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System (NICS) reportedly processed more than 687,000 background checks during “Black Friday” week, including more than 26,000 on Thanksgiving Day, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Total for the week leading up to what has traditionally been called “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving on which retailers have come to expect robust holiday season sales, was 687,788 NICS Checks, NSSF said.
That’s a raw number, “inclusive of all background checks related to firearms,” NSSF said Monday.
It’s quite a figure, suggesting America is continuing to exercise the Second Amendment, and gun ownership is hardly going out of style.
NSSF President and CEO Joe Bartozzi said in a prepared statement, “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.”
The numbers were broken down day-by-day:
Saturday, Nov. 20 – 101,057
Sunday, Nov. 21 – 58,059
Monday, Nov. 22 – 96,696
Tuesday, Nov. 23 – 105,815
Wednesday, Nov. 24 – 112,484
Thursday, Nov. 25 – 26,092
Friday, Nov. 26 – 187,585
Continuing strong gun sales should come as no surprise to anybody, considering the political efforts to reduce police funding in many agencies, from the Northeast to the Pacific Northwest. Rising instances of violent crime in many parts of the country contributes to uneasiness, and media attention to the violence—whether it involves another updated body count in Chicago or a shooting at a shopping mall in Tacoma—merely reinforces the growing interest in gun ownership by private citizens.
Concealed carry is up nationwide, and there is increasing interest in the case now before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the carry permit law in New York State. A decision is months away, but the public, and public officials, will be watching this one closely. The case is known as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
