(Reuters) - The number of FBI background checks required for Americans buying
guns set a record in December, indicating that more people may purchase one
after the Connecticut school massacre stirred interest in self-defense and
prompted renewed talk of limits on firearms, according to FBI
data.
The FBI said it recorded 2.78 million background checks during the month,
surpassing the mark set in November of 2.01 million checks - about a 39 percent
rise.
The latest monthly figure was up 49 percent over December 2011, when the FBI
performed a then-record 1.86 million checks.
Consumer demand for guns appears to have accounted for the uptick in
activity. There were no changes in FBI background check procedures that would
have affected the December numbers, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said.
December is typically the busiest month of the year for checks, however, due
in part to Christmas gift sales.
The figures do not represent the number of firearms sold, a statistic the
government does not track. They also do not reflect activity between private
parties, such as family members or collectors, because federal law requires
background checks only for sales from commercial vendors with a federal
license.
Someone who passes a background check is eligible to buy multiple
firearms.
FBI checks for all of 2012 totaled 19.6 million, an annual record and an
increase of 19 percent over 2011.
The FBI system - known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check
System (NICS) - "processed transactions following normal established protocols,"
Fischer said in an email.
The national debate on guns has grown more intense since December 14, when
Adam Lanza forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,
Connecticut, and killed 20 children and six adults before committing suicide in
one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
Lanza also killed his mother, the registered owner of the guns used in the
killings, before going to the school.
SHOOTINGS LEAD TO SALES
Interest in guns tends to increase after a mass shooting, as customers fear
for personal safety or worry that lawmakers might ban certain firearms.
President Barack Obama has committed to pushing new legislation, possibly
including a ban on some semi-automatic weapons, this year.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for
firearms-makers, estimates the size of the industry at $4 billion a year. A
spokesman for the association did not respond to a request for comment on
Wednesday.
Shares of gun maker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp were up 1.2 percent at
$8.54 at Wednesday's close, while those of Sturm Ruger & Co Inc were up 1.1
percent at $45.88, during a broad rally in which the Standard & Poor's 500
Index was up 2.5 percent.
Neither company responded to requests for comment.
"The last eight years (have) been very good to be a handgun company. The
market has expanded significantly, and long guns having done pretty good, as
well," said Smith & Wesson Chief Executive James Debney at a December 12
conference for investors.
The pattern of gun sales rising after a mass shooting is disturbing, said
Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a Washington
group that favors gun control.
"While the majority of Americans look for solutions to stop the next attack,
a minority of gun owners runs to hoard the very guns used in the most recent"
incidents, Sugarmann said in an email.
Even as gun purchases rise, the share of U.S. households with a gun has been
falling for decades, from 54 percent in 1977 to 32 percent in 2010, according to
the University of Chicago's General Social Survey.
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