More than 165,000 National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) background checks were conducted on Black Friday 2025.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported there were precisely 165,183 NICS checks conducted on Black Friday 2025 and a total of 530,156 conducted during the “the week leading up to, and including” Black Friday.
NICS checks are those conducted at retail for the sale of a firearm. The checks began in 1993 and are conducted by the FBI, which uses the information a would-be gun buyer provides on gun transfer Form 4473.
Once a would-be gun buyer passes the NICS check, he is able to buy a firearm.
It is important to remember that more than one gun can be transferred after a successful check is conducted on an individual, as the check is done on the person not the firearm(s). This means 165,183 checks could actually translate into 200,000+ or 300,000+ guns sold, or even more.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
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