The number of firearms purchased through Federal Firearms License holders on Black Friday has been released by the FBI, which were just short of breaking the current record from 2017.  This year’s Black Friday gun sales were just 621 checks shy of breaking the 203,086 National Instant Background Check System (NICS) established in 2017.

The total number of NICS checks from 2019 reached 202,465, which is still impressive for one day’s worth of business.  It should also be noted that the number of NICS checks don’t necessarily reflect the number of guns sold, since more than one gun can be purchased per background check, at least in the majority of the United States.  This year’s Black Friday NICS checks also boasted an 11 percent increase over the 2018 Black Friday checks.

To put the numbers into perspective, some social media commenters mentioned that the number of firearms sold on Black Friday was more than enough to arm the entire Unite States Marine Corps, which stands at roughly 190,000 people.

As for the whole year’s gun sales, USA Today reported that if the number of NICS checks stays steady, it could result in near record, around 23 million checks.  American Rifleman, on the other hand, quoted the Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting (SAAF) December report that the number of actual guns sold is only slightly higher than last year’s sales and still about 1.5 million guns short of the 2017 figures.  They also noted that this year’s figures need about 2.8 million guns to go before matching 2016’s 16.6 million.  You can read their December release HERE.

What do you think about this year’s gun sales and NICS checks?  Did you buy a gun or three on Black Friday or Cyber Monday?  If you had to make a wild guess, how many private gun sales do you think take place each year?