DENVER (CBS4) – The day after the shooting in Connecticut a lot of people in Colorado tried to buy a gun.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation says it received 4,154 requests for background checks from potential buyers on Saturday.

That was so many the CBI couldn’t process them all and the backlog grew to nearly 18 hours. The Unit could only process 3,001 checks on Saturday.

Extra staff was brought in over the weekend and workers are still trying to clear the backlog.

“CBI’s InstaCheck employees are dedicated professionals who take tremendous pride in providing exceptional customer service while balancing the critical public safety role they perform in the background check process,” CBI Director Ronald Sloan said in a statement.

“The team routinely works well past operating hours of the unit to reduce numbers in the queue and subsequent wait times. I’m extremely proud of their efforts this weekend, and throughout the year.”

The record for background checks processed in one day is still from Black Friday of this year as 4,028 background checks were processed for firearms purchases.

According to Susan Medina with the CBI, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is experiencing similar volume to CBI’s InstaCheck numbers.

Citizens are asked to remain patient as CBI’s InstaCheck Unit works to process the background checks.

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