Firearm background checks broke record in Colorado on Black Friday

There was a record-breaking number of firearm background checks in Colorado this Black Friday.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s InstaCheck Unit conducted more than 4,100 firearm background checks, the most it has ever conducted in a single day.

For Melanie Bernstein, owner of Elite Firearms and Training a lot of those checks translated into sales.

“Black Friday was actually pretty busy,” she said. “And I was pleasantly surprised because I’m kind of one of the smaller stores around, and there’s a lot of bigger stores that were offering products that were even below my cost.”

At Specialty Sports, Black Friday sales were solid but not the best ever, its owner said. He said the number of background checks isn’t something to get excited about. Many people wait until the holiday season to buy firearms and there was a lot of promotion, he said.

“There’s a lot more gun shops now than there used to be; there is a lot more people right now who are just fascinated with firearms,” Jeffrey Lepp said. “I don’t think theres anything political, fear-based, they just want to buy a new firearm.”