More than 200,000 people tried to buy a gun in the Black Friday sales

The Black Friday sales are good to pick up a few bargains in time for Christmas – or a gun if you live in the United States.

Figures show that over 200,000 people tried to buy a firearm in the US on the day the sale hit – the first Friday after Thanksgiving.

According to USA Today, there were 203,086 requests for instant gun background checks on 24 November – a record for the most ever in one day.

The figures also represent a nearly 10% rise in the requested background checks from Black Friday in 2016, when 185,713 applied.

Alarmingly, the latest figure does not necessarily represent the amount of guns sold, which could be HIGHER as buyers can purchase more than one firearm per check.

With tougher gun laws being a possibility in the future in the wake of the Las Vegas and Texas mass shootings, Americans may be buying now while it is not as difficult to get them – and at a bargain Black Friday price.

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered a review of the FBI database used to check the backgrounds of prospective gun buyers after it emerged the Air Force failed to report the criminal history of Texas shooter Devin Kelly.

As a result, the 26-year-old was able to buy firearms that his conviction for domestic violence should have stopped him from doing.