Clothing and electronics were not the only things being purchased on the busiest shopping day of the year.
Gun sales surged as the federal government was on track to process more than 175,000 background checks, the FBI told CNN.
This is the highest number of background checks conducted on a Black Friday, and the second highest in history. On December 21, 2012, a week after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, 177,000 background checks were initiated.
Friday's number of checks averages to approximately three checks per second, nearly three times the daily average.
According to the CNN report, 600 FBI and contract call center employees work 17-hour days to keep up with the background checks, which need to be completed in a three-day span. Approximately two percent of the requests will not be completed as a result of insufficient information.
"The challenge is to have staff keep up with this volume. We do that by limiting personal leave, asking employees to work extra shifts and reutilizing former … employees to serve in NICS during this busy period," FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer told CNN.