Colorado Sets New Record For Gun Background Checks Within 48 Hours Of Sandy Hook Elementary School Tragedy

Colorado Sets A New Record

This weekend, in the immediate 48-hour aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Colorado set yet another record for background check submittals to buy guns this year.

Colorado Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Susan Medina told The Denver Post that the number of submittals on Saturday even exceeded the last record number of background check requests on Black Friday.

There have been several unusual spikes in gun sales in 2012 alone. A large spike in gun sales took place immediately following the tragic Aurora movie theater shooting that left 12 dead and nearly 60 wounded. Just days after the shooting, background checks for people wanting to purchase firearms in the state jumped more than 41 percent. And another sales spike occurred following the Jessica Ridgeway tragedy, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations.

Then, on Black Friday, CBI set a new record in the state processing over 4,000 background checks on people purchasing firearms -- that's nearly 1,000 more checks than were run in 2011 when CBI set a single-day record of checking 3,031 gun buyers, according to 9News. So busy was the CBI that the flood of new applications crashed the system twice on Black Friday.

While the number of firearm applications does not correlate with the number of guns in the state -- since a buyer who has passed the background check can get multiple guns and the state does not track the number of firearm purchases -- as of November of this year, 279,149 firearm applications had been approved out of 285,424. That's over 33,000 more approvals since last year, not counting this month when background check submittals set the latest record.

Nationally, a gun sales bump happened close to Obama's election in 2008, and even though buyers' fears have since proven unfounded, Newser reports the fear of a crackdown on guns in Obama's second term has spiked demand once more -- and like clockwork, gun sales spiked following Obama's reelection in November.

"I should put Obama's picture on the wall up there," said an anonymous New Jersey gun salesman to CNBC. "I'd name him salesman of the month!"

But Obama may not be the only reason so many are now interested in packing heat. Analysts say a portion of the increase in sales is due to demographic shifts as well.

"The biggest new group of buyers now are senior citizens," explained Larry Hyatt, the owner of a North Carolina gun shop, to CNBC's Closing Bell. "Ten thousand baby boomers a day are turning 65. They can't run, they can't fight, they got to shoot."

Before You Go

1981: The Attempted Assassination Of President Ronald Reagan

Pivotal Moments In The Federal Gun Control Debate

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot