Americans love getting guns for Christmas

Gun sales healthy in 2014

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Unsurprisingly, guns were a popular Christmas gift for Americans this year.

The National Retail Federation predicted that gun sales would rise 4% in November and December as holiday shoppers sought firearms to put under Christmas trees. On Black Friday alone, 175,000 federal background checks were conducted — a record.

Comedian Joe Mande, who has more than 1 million Twitter followers, drew attention to the gun-as-gift obsession Thursday by highlighting some of the people tweeting about their new guns on Christmas morning. Some photos that he retweeted showed young children with their first guns in tow. Moms, dads, sisters and brothers celebrated their gifts.

It’s been another year of guns in the news in the U.S. — everything from the shooting of Michael Brown to the 9-year-old girl who accidentally killed her shooting instructor with an Uzi. The Pew Research Center said this month that for the first time in two decades, more Americans support gun rights (52%) than gun control (46%).

  Every time I don't tell my dad what I want for Christmas I end up with a gun
I really hope my parents got me a new gun for Christmas. Last year my mom got a glock, I think it's my turn!
new toy