Black Friday Gun Sales: Two Checks A Second

Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days not just for customers looking for holiday sales, but also for those buying guns.

That puts extra pressure on the law enforcement officials performing criminal background checks on anybody wanting weapons.

In the US, there are nine guns for every 10 people, and someone is killed with a firearm every 16 minutes.

And every minute, gun shops make about 40 new requests for criminal background checks on people wanting weapons.

But on Black Friday that accelerates to nearly two checks a second, the AP news agency reported.

The rush tests National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

"We have a perfect storm coming," says Kimberly Del Greco, a manager in the FBI division that helps run the system, known as NICS.

The group did about 58,000 checks on a typical day last year. That surged to 145,000 on Black Friday in 2013.

To cope with the expected post-Thanksgiving surge, the agency is bringing in 100 more workers than usual.

But whether this will be enough to avoid gun sales slipping through remains to be seen.

Researchers have until the end of the third business day following an attempted firearm purchase to determine whether or not a buyer is eligible.

After that, buyers can legally get their guns, whether or not the check was completed.

Last year, time ran out more than 186,000 times.

Ten factors can disqualify gun purchasers, including a felony conviction, an arrest warrant, and a documented drug problem or mental illness.

However, people can get guns without background checks in many states by buying weapons at gun shows or from individuals - a loophole that the National Rifle Association does not want closed.

FBI checks for all of 2012 totalled 19.6 million.