Some people head out on Black Friday to buy a big-screen TV, or a new coffee machine. 
 
 But tens of thousands of Americans this year sought a very different kind of item on what is expected to be the biggest shopping weekend of 2015: guns. 
 
 Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman Stephen Fischer confirmed to Fortune that there were 185,345 background checks on November 27, easily beating the previous all time high of 177,170 on December 21, 2012, which was shortly after the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut. 
 
 The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) data are widely considered to be the best proxy for gun sales. 
 
 With last week’s big jump, four out of the 11 biggest days ever for background checks were on a Black Friday. On the same day last year, the FBI conducted 175,754 checks. 
 
 Big retailers such as Cabela’s and Sportsman’s Warehouse were advertising deals for guns heading into Black Friday. 

 CLOSE More Americans had their backgrounds checked purchasing guns on Black Friday than any day on record, according to data released by the FBI this week. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System processed 185,345 requests on Nov. 27. USA TODAY 
 
 A variety of military-style semiautomatic rifles obtained during a buy-back program are displayed at Los Angeles police headquarters in 2012. (Photo: Damian Dovarganes, AP) 
 
 More Americans had their backgrounds checked purchasing guns on Black Friday than any day on record, according to data released by the FBI this week. 
 
 The National Instant Criminal Background Check System processed 185,345 requests on Nov. 27, one of the largest retail sales days in the country. 
 
 "This was an approximate 5% increase over the 175,754 received on Black Friday 2014," wrote Stephen Fischer, the FBI's chief of multimedia productions. "The previous high for receipts were the 177,170 received on 12/21/2012." 
 
 Previous spikes for background checks, conducted before a gun buyer can obtain a firearm, occurred after prominent mass shootings, like in December 2012 in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. 
 
 Other Black Friday shopping days in 2014, 2013 and 2012 occupied the FBI's "top 10" list of the most background checks processed in a 24-hour period. 
 
 Since 1998, FBI data shows that the bureau has processed requests for more than 220 million firearm purchases. 
 
 Licensed sellers deny sales to failed background checks based on a variety of factors including criminal backgrounds, domestic violence convictions or restraining orders. 
 
 Friday's purchases came the same day as the mass shooting incident in Colorado Springs that killed three people and injured nine others. 
 
 On Saturday, President Obama called for tighter controls of "weapons of war" in the wake of the Planned Parenthood shooting. 
 
 "This is not normal," Obama said. "We can't let it become normal. If we truly care about this — if we're going to offer up our thoughts and prayers again, for God knows how many times, with a truly clean conscience — then we have to do something about the easy accessibility of weapons of war on our streets to people who have no business wielding them. Period. Enough is enough." 
 
 Follow Nick Penzenstadler on Twitter: @npenzenstadler 
 
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– This year's Black Friday wasn't just the biggest sales day of the year, it was the biggest gun sales day in history, according to FBI data on background checks, which is seen as the best measure available for US gun sales. The agency says the National Instant Criminal Background Check System processed a record 185,345 requests on Nov. 27, more than on any other day since it started processing background checks for would-be gun buyers in 1998, USA Today reports. Last year's Black Friday saw nearly as many background check requests, reports Fortune, but the previous record was set on Dec. 21, 2012, soon after the Sandy Hook school massacre, when 177,170 background checks were processed. (The last gun store in San Francisco is closing down.)