CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
Government records show just in the month of November, Americans tried to buy 2 million guns.
There are nearly 130,000 licensed firearms dealers in the United States. 51,000 are retail gun stores according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Compare that to: 37,000 grocery stores, 14,000 McDonald's restaurants, and 13,000 Starbucks stores nationwide.
That means there two times more gun stores than McDonalds and Starbucks combined.
On Black Friday when many shoppers were looking for the deal of the year, potential gun buyers were out in full force setting a record for the second consecutive year.
On that single day, the FBI reported that its call centers were flooded with more than 154,000 calls from firearms dealers requesting background checks--a 20% increase from last year. The increase is believed to have been driven by fears that President Obama and other lawmakers would tighten gun control laws.
Also, the FBI's statistics show that there were more than 16.8 million background checks for gun purchases in 2012. The highest number recorded to date.
Chicago has the highest homicide rate among youth in the country and most are killed by gunfire.
According to the ATF, there are approximately 113,000 registered weapons in the state of Illinois.
Gun retailers in Newtown and around the country say the massacre has sparked a surge in gun sales over the weekend, some reporting multiple requests for the AR-15 style rifle used by Adam Lanza.
As seen in the past, it is not uncommon to see an increase in gun sales following a mass shooting. In fact, after the massacre in the Colorado movie theatre, the state reportedly approved background checks for 43% more people than the week before.
Industry experts say the spike in sales is motivated by self-defense. In the meantime, the CDC reports more than 30,000 lives are lost every year to gun violence.
