There was a fair bit of media attention over the fact that NICS checks on Black Friday weren’t as high as they had been the year before. Considering how many guns had been sold this year, a lot of people found that a little surprising, myself included.

After all, the biggest shopping day of the year happens and there aren’t more guns sold?

Seriously, what’s up with that?

Well, it seems people were waiting just a bit.

Cyber Monday gun background checks surged by 65% this year compared to the same day last year with more than 123,700 conducted, while checks for the extended holiday weekend as a whole were up by roughly 4% year-over-year, according to recently released statistics.

Of the 19.1 million gun background checks conducted year-to-date, 417,465 were done from Thursday to Sunday, while another 123,797 were completed on Cyber Monday, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) said in an email to Fox News. Monday’s numbers shot up 65.2% year-over-year compared to the 74,926 background checks submitted on the same day in 2019, according to the gun trade group’s statistics, which are based on the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

So, what gives?

Well, my initial reaction was that people simply weren’t going to the gun stores if they could help it due to COVID-19 concerns, so they all ordered online. However, the math doesn’t really work out on that one since online orders wouldn’t create a NICS check until the guns were picked up at the FFL.

Instead, I’m thinking that in previous years, people spent their money on Black Friday leaving little for Monday. This year, people opted to wait to go and buy.

Of course, that’s just a guess based on what we currently know.

Here’s something else we know:

“Politicians looking for a mandate on firearms should examine the record setting figures Americans are posting every month with firearm sales,” [director of public affairs for the NSSF Mark] Oliva wrote. “Americans have told their elected representatives more than 19 million times exactly where their voters stand when it comes to their rights, more than 7.5 million making that declaration publicly for the first time in their lives.”

Since some in Washington think they do have some kind of mandate simply because they won a narrow election, that’s definitely something they should keep in mind. With tons of new gun owners, the last thing anyone should be talking about is restricting gun ownership. There are too many of us for there to be an actual mandate.

Further, expect those numbers to continue to climb for as long as a threat to our Second Amendment remains. More people will buy guns out of fear that they won’t be available indefinitely.

Expect to see more and more of these kinds of stories over the next couple of years at a minimum.

The American people clearly still love their guns, even people who are just now dipping their toes into the gun ownership waters. That’s a very good thing for the nation as a whole.