For the second consecutive year, prospective gun buyers joined Black Friday shoppers in record numbers as firearms dealers swamped the FBI with buyer background check requests, USA Today reports.. The FBI fielded 154,873 calls, a 20 percent increase from last year's previous one-day record of 129,166. The requests came in such volume that FBI call centers experienced two brief outages.

The FBI does not track actual gun sales. The number of firearms sold Friday is likely higher because multiple firearms can be included in one transaction by a single buyer. Dealers attributed the continuing gun surge to a variety of factors, including an increase in women buyers and concerns that lawmakers in President Obama's second term could impose stricter gun laws. Among them: a possible attempt to renew a ban on assault weapons. Neither Obama nor Republican nominee Mitt Romney made such proposals during the campaign.