FBI: Firearm purchases shoot up in 2011

[Dand]

     I found this on msnbc - interesting I think.

FBI: Firearm purchases shoot up in 2011
By msnbc.com staff and news services
[/size]The FBI performed a record number of instant background checks on would-be firearm buyers in 2011 as Americans went on an apparent gun-buying spree, new government data show. [/font]
[/size][/color][/size]During the holiday season, business really picked up: FBI officials say gun dealers requested more than 1.5 million background checks in December and a third of those checks were requested in the last six days leading up to Christmas. [/font][/size]The numbers came as no surprise to Gerald Rutkowski, manager of Dury's Gun Shop in San Antonio, Texas.  [/font][/size]"We've been running ahead all year long," Rutkowski told msnbc.com on Thursday. "We've had an increase of 30 percent in sales over the last year, and for us here in Texas, it's a sign of improving economic conditions." [/font]
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[/size]Texas, which ranks No. 2 in population according to the Census Bureau, was No. 2 in the background checks as well, with 1.15 million screening requests in 2011. Kentucky topped the list. [/font]
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[/size]Millions of queries
  Nationwide, FBI officials said it fielded nearly 16.5 million queries from firearms sellers last year, checking that customers buying guns did not have criminal records or other red flags that made them ineligible to purchase weapons.  That was up 15 percent from 2010, when the FBI performed 14.4 million screenings using its National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, and the highest number of annual screenings performed since the checks went into effect in 1998. The FBI cautioned that each background check did not necessarily represent an individual firearm sale, in part because some would-be buyers fail to pass the screening. But FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said the background checks are correlated with weapon purchases. So the spike in screenings last year suggests that an increase in gun sales the agency has been tracking for several years was continuing. Fischer declined to analyze or comment on the jump in firearms purchases, saying the bureau's responsibility was only "to operate and maintain the NICS system."
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But Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, said he believed the political uncertainty surrounding next year's general election was prompting would-be gun buyers to accelerate purchases.  ..............

[/size]For whole article: [/font]http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/05/9983727-fbi-firearm-purchases-shoot-up-in-2011
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[mirage1988]

I read this story on another site but msnbc conveniently left out the fact that kentucky leads the list of backgrounds checks only because they run a MONTHLY background check of every CCW holder in kentucky.