By Nick Carey
CHICAGO, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Background checks for firearms
purchases spiked after the Dec. 14 mass shooting at a school in
Newtown, Connecticut, new data from the FBI showed on Monday.
According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s
National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), nine
of the top 10 days for firearms checks from Nov. 30, 1998, to
Jan. 27, 2013, including Dec. 14, 2012, occurred since Adam
Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary
School and then shot and killed himself.
Lanza also killed his mother before the school massacre. His
use of an AR 15 assault-type rifle and high-capacity ammunition
magazines have been at the heart of the contentious debate over
gun control.
The NICS is a nationwide system for checking criminal
records, developed by the FBI with the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and local and state law
enforcement agencies. The system is run by the FBI.
According to the FBI data, the leading six days for
background checks before the sale of firearms occurred after
Dec. 14, 2012. The top five weeks for background checks were the
week of the massacre and afterward.
Since Nov. 30, 1998, the top day for background checks
before gun sales was Dec. 21, 2012, a week after the massacre.
Checks that day numbered 177,170.
The top week since Nov. 30, 1998, was Dec. 17 to Dec. 23,
2012, when 953,613 background checks were requested.
Gun control advocates argue that civilians do not need to
own assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Gun rights
supporters argue that efforts to ban assault weapons are an
attack on the second amendment right of the U.S. constitution,
which addresses the right to bear arms.
(Reporting By Nick Carey)
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