By BOB FORD

bford@tnonline.comBlack Friday isn't just when shoppers rush to stores for holiday sales. It's also one of the busiest days of the year for gun purchases.Mike Coogan, from Ed's Sport Shop in Tamaqua, said that the trend is true at his store on West Broad Street."We notice a boost in sales on Black Friday, so much that we, like most retailers, have extended hours to meet the increase," Coogan said.He has stocked a selection of hunting rifles/shotguns as well as self-defense rifles/shotguns/handguns."The only item that will be tight, not only for Black Friday but for this year's hunting season, is .35 Remington ammunition."Michael Fritz, the store manager of Dunkelberger's Sports Outfitter's Brodheadsville store also said that the store sees a boost in sales on Black Friday, but that it's not just Christmas shoppers."Most of the sales are a combination of either people buying something like a .22-caliber rifle for a youth, or people buying hunting rifles for buck season, which opens Monday," Fritz said.When the Brady Bill was enacted in 1993 requiring background checks on all firearms purchased through a dealer, states were given the option of either using the federal government's National Instant Criminal Background Check System or incorporating their own system. Pennsylvania opted to integrate its own system, Pennsylvania Instant Check System, administered by the Pennsylvania State Police.In the U.S., there are nine guns for every 10 people.And every minute, gun shops make about 40 new requests for criminal background checks on people wanting weapons. On Black Friday, the rush accelerates to nearly two checks a second, testing the limits of both the NICS and the PICS systems.Ed's Sport Shop recently upgraded to the electronic PICS system, which has sped up the background check process on most days."With the new electronic PICS we do not see the wait times we have in the past using the old phone-in system. However, this was the first Black Friday that we used the new e-system, and it failed. We went back to the old way of manually calling in every check," Coogan said.According to Coogan some of the checks took upward of one hour, several times longer than normal.In the years since these background checks were required, about 71 percent have found no red flags and produced instant approvals.But 10 factors can disqualify gun purchasers: a felony conviction, an arrest warrant, a documented drug problem or mental illness, undocumented immigration status, a dishonorable military discharge, a renunciation of U.S. citizenship, a restraining order, a history of domestic violence, or an indictment for any crime punishable by longer than one year of prison time.The sheer number of background checks puts pressure on the systems. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, overseen by the FBI, has until the end of the third business day following an attempted firearm purchase to determine whether a buyer is eligible.After that, buyers have the right to get their guns even if the check wasn't completed. Last year, the clock ran out more than 186,000 times.Pennsylvania's PICS system has 15 days for a decision. After that time if a decision still isn't reached the application gets marked "undetermined" and is thus denied.