Record number of Americans buying guns, new FBI figures show

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/fbi-us-gun-control-record-number-buying

More than 2.4m gun background checks were initiated in January, topped only by last December's 2.7m

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'America is crazy for guns,' says Pam Bosley, mother of a young student shot dead in Chicago. 'We love guns more than life.' Photograph: Elaine Thompson/AP

Americans are lining up to buy guns in unprecedented numbers in the wake of the Newtown school shooting and the debate around tightening gun controls, with federal background checks on prospective buyers running at record levels.

New figures released by the FBI show that 2,495,440 gun background checks were initiated in January. That is the second highest number since records began in 1998, and is exceeded only by the entry for December 2012, which reached a peak of 2,783,765.