Background checks set new Black Friday record

Background checks for gun purchases on Black Friday set a new record this year.

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System processed 185,713 applications Friday, according to Business Insider — an increase of nearly 400 over last year’s record-setting total.

Industry analysts use background checks as a proxy for gun sales nationwide, though it’s an imprecise measure because dealers submit only one Form 4473 per transaction, whether it’s one gun or several.

The news comes one day after Guns.com reported busy Black Friday sales at local gun shops in New Jersey and New York, despite media predictions of a tapering off in the wake of the presidential election.

NICS data for November will be released Thursday, though the system remains on track to break last year’s record of 23.1 million checks.

FBI data shows NICS processed 2.3 million checks in October, putting the system less than 1 million applications shy of the 2015 total. It’s the biggest October on record since the federal background check system rolled out in 1998, continuing a trend seen in seven of the last 10 months.

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