BLACK FRIDAY WEEK LOGS 687,000 BACKGROUND CHECKS

Source Credit: guns.com | CHRIS EGER

"Black Friday" week gun sales, traditionally one of the high points in the year, was brisk, with last Friday set to enter the list of "Top 10" busiest days in history.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said its National Instant Criminal Background Check System processed 187,585 checks on Friday. This is a slight 0.5 percent bump from last year’s figures of 186,645 and will come in at 10th place in all-time highest days seen by the system, displacing the 2020 spot.

For the week, the total stood at a very respectable 687,788 – akin to one check for every resident of a city with the population the size of Denver, Nashville, or Seattle.

The NICS system's "Top 10 Highest Days" since 1998 is notably all held by dates that have occurred in the past four years, as America is buying guns at historic rates. Last week's Black Friday will bump last year's Black Friday for the No. 10 spot. (Chart: FBI)

The trade group for the firearms industry, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, called the weekly numbers "remarkable," on Monday.

"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," said Joe Bartozzi, NSSF president and CEO. "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."