FBI: Gun background checks peaked after Newtown tragedy

Customers shop for guns at Freddie Bear Sports sporting goods store on January 19, 2012, in Tinley Park, Illinois. / Getty Images

WASHINGTON The FBI said Monday it conducted more background checks for firearms sales and permits to carry guns the week following the Newtown, Conn., shooting massacre that it has in any other one-week period since 1998.

The second highest week for background checks came earlier this month as President Barack Obama announced sweeping plans to curb gun violence. The FBI started keeping track of federally mandated background checks in 1998.

The newly released FBI data confirms what many gun dealers around the country have said about sales going up after the deadly Connecticut shooting that left 27 dead, including 20 children, as gun enthusiasts braced for stricter controls. The number of background checks does not represent the number of firearms purchased, but gun manufacturers use these statistics to measure the health of the gun industry in the U.S.

After the Dec. 14 shooting at a Newtown elementary school, the FBI conducted 953,613 background checks between Dec. 17 and Dec. 23. The highest number of background checks in a single day since 1998 was Dec. 21, just one week after a gunman shot and killed his mother at their Connecticut home using weapons his mother had legally purchased before he drove to the school and shot his way into the building. The second highest day for background checks was December 20.

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During the week that Obama announced his plans to curb gun violence, the FBI conducted 641,501 background checks. The 10th highest single day for background checks came Jan. 19, three days after Obama spoke about gun violence and new gun control measures. Obama has announced a $500 million plan to tighten federal gun laws, and he is urging Congress to pass new laws that would ban "military-style assault weapons."

Nationally, there were nearly twice as many more background checks for firearms between November and December 2012 than during the same time period one year ago.

Background checks typically spike during the holiday shopping season, and some of the increases in the most recent FBI numbers can be attributed to that. But the number of background checks also tends to increase after mass shootings, when gun enthusiasts fear restrictive measures are imminent.

One gun store owner in Nashville, Tenn., said people in the business are calling this rush to buy guns after the Newton shooting a "banic," meaning people are panicked that Obama would ban guns.

[Krowster]

This is just another way of saying that gun dealers are getting off their butts and doing their jobs, legally requesting a federal search before selling a weapon. Moreover, those buying now think they can get under the radar later, good luck with that.

[FreedomTodd]

Go to YouTube. Type in Sandy Hook Fully Exposed. It was a hoax to take away guns from law-abiding US citizens. It failed, however. Obama won't give up though, there will be another "shooting" involving children soon. Just watch. Now watch CBSNEWS delete my comment since they are amoung Obama's cheerleaders.

[Solarrays247]

Did you run out of aluminum foil? Are you also a "birther?" And how many purple people eaters have you caught recently?

[curtis41]

An increase in gun sales and permits after a shooting is a response to the reality that local, state and federal law enforcement cannot protect all the people, all of the time. Self-defense is a natural, fundamental action, codified in the Constitution and actually predates the Constitution. Some of the real problems are failure of law enforcement and legislators to stem the tide of gang and drug-related gun crimes, failure to enforce current laws concerning felons with a gun, or applying for a new gun background check and obsession with the object of the crime, rather than the criminals. Having the most anti-gun folks on the planet, like Feinstein, et al. does not instill confidence or trust by those concerned with self-defense, hunting, shooting sports, constitutional rights and personal freedom. These are extremely important in a constitutional republic and should never be traded for the agenda to disarm of the left and far left.

[Yimmybob]

FBI chasing Gun history? Why? A person used the gun, an inanimate and constitutionally legal object to commit a crime! Baseball bat history? Knife history? Ridiculous! How about the criminal persons history? Only a Nazi, totalitarian State would pull such idiocy using highly paid gerbil brained goons to chase such smoke and mirrors.

[Solarrays247]

Please direct us to your source where baseball bats and knives can gun down twenty children in a matter of seconds. I studied martial arts for many years. As a consequence, I feel very well equipped to handle someone coming at me with a baseball bat or a knife. However, there is not much that I can do to stop a volley of bullets aimed at me.

[btrdb]

40 homicides in Chicago this month and it's not even February! Chicago has the toughest anti-gun laws on the books in the US. Time for Obama to wake up and smell the coffee. We don't have a gun problem in this country...we have a lack of judges with enough spine to put these people away for good, and a President that wishes HE had a son just like Trayvon. Barry, why don't you come down off your pinacle to the trenches the rest of us live out our daily lives in? Then you might get an idea of what the real world is like, instead of this la-la land you have created in your narrow little elitist world.

[KansasCity-2012]

We still need to close the loopholes that permit gun sales and transfer of ownership without background checks. It is the best chance to keep more weapons away from disqualified buyers.

[btrdb]

Are you really that naive?

[excop1949]

Many "disqualified buyers" steal them from "qualified buyers"....