Americans buy record numbers of guns for Christmas Americans bought record numbers of guns last month amid an apparent surge in popularity for weapons as Christmas presents. By Nick Allen, Los Angeles 7:17PM GMT 01 Jan 2012 According to the FBI, over 1.5 million background checks on customers were requested by gun dealers to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in December. Nearly 500,000 of those were in the six days before Christmas. It was the highest number ever in a single month, surpassing the previous record set in November. On Dec 23 alone there were 102,222 background checks,...