US gun sales ticking along nicely
(01-09 18:56)
The horrific Connecticut elementary school shooting has reignited the debate over gun control in the United States but at the same time gun sales have increased dramatically in the country.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation recorded gun sales in December 2012 with more than 2.7 million background checks being conducted through its National Instant Check System, Xinhua reports.
In December, 2,783,765 total background checks were carried out to purchase firearms, surpassing the previous record from November 2012 when 2,006,919 checks were performed, officials said.
About 19.6 million background checks were carried out for firearm purchases in 2012, a 19-percent rise from 2011 and more than in any year since 1998, according to the FBI.
Each check doesn't represent a single gun, just a single background check transaction.
Since the NICS system was established in November 1998, a total of 160,474,702 background checks were made. Of these, only around 0.006 percent of those attempted purchases were denied and 0.00008 percent -- fewer than a hundred people a year -- were prosecuted for lying on the form.
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