Oregon Black Friday Gun Sales Stress Background Check System

Monday, December 01, 2014

Taya Alami, GoLocalPDX Reporter

Photo Credit: iStock

Hundreds of guns, many of them gifts for others, were purchased in Oregon on Black Friday; the added bump in sales put stress on the national background check system.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported processing 94,000 transactions by 2 p.m. Nov. 28 and estimated the number of guns sold would surpass the 144,758 in Black Friday gun sales the year before. The number of guns sold averaged approximately three background checks per second through the the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

It’s estimated that approximately 2 percent of background checks aren’t processed due to a lack of information, like court records. If the feds cannot complete a background check in three business days, the buyers is still allowed to purchase the gun.

Approximately 267,041 gun transactions were initiated in Oregon in 2012, according to the NICS.

One former owner of a gun store said the general consensus in the community is that firearm sales are way up, and the three background checks per second is only proved that further.

Some retailers reported a steady flow of customers buying guns, but nothing out of the ordinary.

“We weren’t that busy,” a salesman from The Gun Room in SE Portland said. “We weren’t offering any special deals or anything like that.”

Others said they saw big numbers.

“It was the biggest Black Friday in our history and easily one of our top-five shopping days ever,” Tim Greve from Northwest Armory in Milwaukie said

Northwest Armory had approximately 125 waiting in line when the store opened, according to Greve, and the store was steadily slammed for the next several hours. Although the store couldn’t offer an exact figure of how much they sold, Greve said the store sold “a lot.”

Greve said he hopes the huge number of Black Friday sales may point to an uptick in the economy.

“A lot of manufacturers are kind of overstocked so they’re offering up some incentives,” Greve said.

Other Portland-area gun retailers only reported slight bumps in sales.

“We’re busy all the time, so I suppose there was a slight bump but nothing out of the ordinary,” Gun Broker owner Roy Jackson said.

A Black Friday wrinkle with an unknown impact is guns being purchased as gifts. A number of anti-gun advocates have raised concerns over security pertaining to "straw purchases." Individuals who give guns as gifts typically don’t fall under federal gun trafficking statutes and the impact of gun gifts on crime is unknown.

“I’ve never seen where it’s been a problem, and I’ve had this store for 25 years and worked at other stores before that,” Jackson said. “What happens when (guns) leave the door — nobody knows; but gifts haven’t been a problem.

Greve said when it comes to gun gifts, 90 percent of it is a parent getting a .22 caliber gun for their kid or someone buying a gun for their spouse. Most other guns sales ending up as gifts are negligible, Greve said.

Representatives from the National Instant Background Background Check System could not be immediately reached.