Gun owners anticipate a crackdown on unlicensed dealers and more background checks.
Advertisement
December was the biggest month ever, with 3,314,594 checks. Those sellers often skirt the background check requirement by not registering as a licensed dealer. Annual background checks in Colorado doubled from 200,000 in 2009 to 400,000 in 2013 – and denials have gone up, too, rising from 5,400 in 2009 to more than 7,300 in 2012 and 2013. However, the checks do not provide an exhaustive representation of gun sales.
Gun rights activists say that Democrats’ new aggressive posture on gun control contributed to 2015’s record sales.
This year, Tennessee processed 654,192 background checks, according to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
NICS processed 185,345 background checks on Black Friday (Nov. 27), surpassing the previous one-day record of 177,170 in 2012, which occurred about a week after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
The sales were driven by a series of mass shootings that typically motivate buyers who fear more restrictive gun control measures.
As you can see, last months’ 64,000-plus total is more than triple the number of background checks conducted during the same month in 2003 and 2004 and more than double the totals in recent years. The president was meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch Monday to discuss his impending presidential executive actions on guns.
Advertisement
MA has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.
