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Last Updated: Aug 28, 2009 - 10:45:21 AM |
In
recognition of the unprecedented demand for firearms by nervous
consumers, The Outdoor Wire has named
President-elect
Barack Obama its "Gun
Salesman of the Year". For me, it was a simple fact of recognizing that
without President-elect Obama's frightening consumers into action, the
firearms industry might be suffering the same sort of business slumps that
have befallen the automotive and housing industries.
It's credit where credit is due. Mr. Obama has consistently voted against
individual rights to firearms, appointed a re-tread Clinton administration
full of gun banners, and made it plain to anti-gun groups that despite what
he might say to the contrary, he's on their side That history, along with
the unquestioned support of anti-gun organizations has spooked consumers
into a buying frenzy for firearms that could be outlawed in another
Assault
Weapons Ban.
Manufacturers are months behind on orders for
semi-automatic pistols,
AR-style rifles, and anything with so-called 'high-capacity magazines,
buyers we've surveyed across the country seem to have a single explanation
for their rush to purchase firearms - Obama.
The buying panic is not limited to people you might be described as
aficionados or even 'gun nuts'. Recently, I was in a gun store when a
gentleman came and said he'd never wanted to own a gun before, but wanted
to get one while he still could."
Since the November Presidential election, firearms sales have been at
unprecedented levels. For December 2008 the
National Instant Criminal
Background Check System (NICS) recorded a twenty-four percent increase in
background checks for 2008 (1,523,426) over December 2007 (1,230,525).
This follows a forty-two percent (42%) increase in November 2008, the
highest number of NICS checks in the system's history. Those FBI background
checks are required under federal law for all individuals purchasing
firearms from federally licensed firearms retailers. In other words, gun
sales have never been better.
Sales are so good that on Tuesday, January 6, the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued a notice to all federal
firearms licensees that "an unprecedented increase in demand for ATF Form
4473 had run supplies low enough that dealers were temporarily given
permission to photocopy the form until supplies caught up with demand.
Completion of a form 4473 is required whenever a federal firearms licensee
sells a firearm.
As a journalist with more than two decades of national newsgathering
experience, I've never seen anything approaching what he calls the "Obama
effect". In fact, gun and ammunition sales are at such frantic levels that
they have surpassed the panic-buying of Y2K or anything during the Clinton
years when the first
Assault Weapons Ban was passed. This time, he says,
concerned consumers are buying
guns and ammunition in anticipation of Obama
Administration actions to prohibit certain types of firearms.
In 1999, the fear was that computers would shut down, crippling the world.
Those fears were unfounded. I don't think the fears of an Obama
administration banning guns are unfounded. His record speaks for itself.
He's never failed to support an anti-gun measure, despite saying he
supports the
Second Amendment.
Moves to prohibit firearms sales would drastically impact a billion-dollar
industry that is not only healthy, but pours more than one hundred fifty
million dollars annually into conservation programs through an eleven
percent tax collected on
guns and ammo.
The Pittman-Robertson Act provides the vast majority of funding for
wildlife agencies at the federal, state and local levels and that money
comes directly from the tax levied against gun owners. Damaging the
firearms industry won't just put workers in the gun business out of work,
it will severely impact wildlife and conservation efforts nationally. That
damage could take decades to repair - if it can be undone."
Choosing President-elect Obama as the Gun Salesman of the Year is a lot
like a good-news, bad-news joke.His election has driven gun sales into the
stratosphere, but his opposition to guns and gun ownership may be the
biggest threat the industry has ever faced. If he puts scoring political
points with anti-gun groups ahead of economic realities, he will be
deliberately putting thousands of people out of work. I don't see that as
an
economic stimulus plan
"Today, the facts are indisputable. Barack Obama has spurred gun sales in
a time when the entire economy seems to be tanking. If that doesn't make
him the gun salesman of the year - if not the decade - I don't know what
would.
with much of a future."
- Jim Shepherd
© Copyright 2009 by DOWN RANGE TV
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