Gun deals galore dot Black Friday landscape

Nothing like chiming in the Christmas season with a new gun. That’s the message advertisers are blasting out, with deals that promise purchasers savings in the double-digit range.

Post-Thanksgiving gun buys have become a holiday tradition for America, The Huffington Post reported. In the past two years, the FBI has been besieged by applications for gun purchases made on Black Friday.

In 2012, the FBI took in 154,873 background check calls on Black Friday — a record-setting level three times what the agency fielded on any given day that year. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System couldn’t handle the volume, and some data centers crashed, The Huffington Post reported.

The actual number of guns sold was likely even higher. The FBI only tracks background checks, not sales — and weapons buyers can purchase more than one weapon at a time.

In the first ten months of this year, the FBI performed 17,238,102 background checks, which gun dealers say is actually a slower market, The Huffington Post reported. The panic-buys of 2012, fueled by President Obama’s vow to crack down on gun violence via more Second Amendment regulations, has cooled off slightly, they say. So they’ve ratcheted their marketing for this year’s holiday season, with Black Friday price-cuts abound.

Bass Pro Shops has slashed prices on semi-automatics, such as the Bushmaster M4 Carbine, as well as on various handguns and shotguns, The Huffington Post reported. Dick’s Sporting Goods has implemented across-the-board gun price decreases. And Cabela’s is trying to draw in consumers with a gun giveaway. The store’s offering a Browning X-Bolt Medallion rifle as one of its mystery prizes for the first 600 who enter the store on Black Friday.

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SPECIAL COVERAGE: Second Amendment & Gun Control

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Wal-Mart, the largest gun-seller in the U.S., is offering a “Manager’s Special Sale” that give customers an extra 20 percent off certain rifles and shotguns.