Record gun sales in MD slow background checks

PIKESVILLE, Md - The more state lawmakers talk about gun control, the quicker regulated firearms such as handguns and certain assault type rifles are flying off the shelves.

To say gun sales are booming is an understatement.

The past three and a half months have seen sales that have rivaled entire year sales totals.

State police have the laborious task of running 17 different background checks on thousands of gun purchases.

The back log is at least month or more.

"They checking FBI files state court records juvenile information mental and health hygiene for any mental health records in the state system that would say that someone is prohibited there is a variety of checks this is a thorough check that is being completed by the state licensing division." State Police Spokesman Greg Shipley says.

And that check is for every regulated firearm purchase

In 2008 state police processed more than 37,182.

In 2010 there were more than 38,882.

In 2012, they processed 70,019.

The past three months have seen and incredible amount of applications.

December, 11,560.

January, 14,238.

And just last month 11,253.

And that doesn't include March, with 6,007 applications in just the first 15 days.

So far this year state police have received 31, 498 regulated gun applications.

Maryland law only calls for a seven day waiting period from the time of purchase to the time of approval.

But the delay that's running close to a month now could leave a loophole.

"As the law states they're technically required to hold that seven days and the law is silent on that and technically that gun could be released to that individual but the firearms dealers in Maryland are very concerned about this issue and they don’t' want to see guns get into the hands of prohibited persons and neither do we so many of them are holding those weapons." Shipley says.     

In addition to the store owners being vigilant, there is another thing that is also holding up gun delivery.

Some models of handgun and rifles are completely sold out or on back order and sellers just can't get them.

For some models of rifles there is as much as a two month wait for the weapon to even get into the store.