Gun sales jump as Obama eyes restrictions
Business could not be better for the gun industry lately, and it's preparing for a tough fight against proposals the president laid out Wednesday.
President Obama knows he's taking on a formidable opponent in the gun industry. It's well funded, vocal, intensely popular with many Americans and growing quickly. Guns have become a huge business in America, and sales lately have been through the roof as enthusiasts worried their rights would be compromised. Gun stores report lines out the door and low supplies, and shoppers report examples of price gouging on high demand.
It's hard to pin down the number of guns sold lately, since gun makers don't report unit sales. And it's tough to rely on the number of FBI background checks, since a reported 40% of gun sales are made with no background check at all.
But you can look at the rising number of background checks lately as an indication of momentum, and that momentum appears very strong indeed. The FBI said its instant background check system processed 2.8 million requests last month, almost 1 million more than a year earlier. Some of the largest increases took place in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia, Oregon and Alaska, according to the Governing website.
Investors seem to have no worries about the gun industry. Shares of the two major gun makers were jumping Wednesday after Obama's call for sweeping gun control measures. The stock price of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (SWHC) rose more than 4% to $8.79. Shares of Sturm Ruger & Co. (RGR) rose 4% to $49.92.
Both stocks have seen significant growth over the last year. Shares of Smith & Wesson are up some 75% over that period, while Sturm Ruger has risen 25%.
Would investors be betting so heavily on a decelerating industry? Of course not, and Wall Street has thus sent its verdict to Obama: Your proposals are not happening.
The National Rifle Association came out swinging even before Obama unveiled a list of 23 executive actions he thinks will cut gun violence. At the NRAStandandFight website, the association unveiled a video Tuesday calling Obama an "elitist hypocrite" because his children are protected by armed guards.
The NRA said it has seen an "unprecedented" spike in membership numbers in the last month, CNN reports, with 250,000 people joining the 4.25 million existing members.
Obama recognized the battle ahead, and tried to appeal to Republicans in his speech by invoking former president Ronald Reagan, who supported a ban on assault weapons in 1994. That ban expired in 2004 and was never renewed.
Obama said that implementing his proposals will be difficult. He added that pundits, lawmakers and lobbyists will warn Americans of a "tyrannical all-out assault on liberty" in order to gin up fear or higher ratings or more revenue.
"The only way we can change is if the American people demand it," he said, urging people to call their Congressional lawmakers. "Along with our freedom to live our lives as we will comes an obligation to allow others to do the same. We don't live in isolation. We live in a society."
The NRA, for its part, is promising to give Obama "the fight of the century," according to the Washington Post. In a fund-raising letter to the group's members, association executive Wayne LaPierre had this to say: "It's not about protecting your children. It's not about stopping crime. It's about banning your guns. . . PERIOD!"
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It is sad that liberals and democrats argue that you don't need to show ID to vote, which is a right, but insist that you show ID, and go through background checks to purchase a gun, another right.
Since far more damage can be done with a vote than a gun, I suggest we have the same requirements for VOTING as we do for GUN purchases....
How many democrats will favor that? If they don't they are truly HYPOCRITES!
These ‘random’ acts of violence are in no way random; they are the direct result of the feminization of our schools and our boys.
Our schools treat any normal aggressive tendency in our boys as psychotic behavior and attempt to control it through drugs
and punitive action. They are no longer allowed to act out what has been for thousands of years the normal aggressive nature
inherent in the male species. When I grew up you would get into a fistfight in the school yard and that would be the end of things; the
next day the kid you fought with would be your best friend. Now those 2 boys would be sent to a psychiatrist and have a label attached
for life and be drugged for antisocial behavior . At some point they realize what has been done to them and they snap.
Did the NRA send all this people to this page to complain., I'm so happy to hear them , "cause that means they are really hurt, pobresitos babies, You don't even know how to put a lock on your guns.you got more coming, hopefully, remember, white angry males are on their decline. Move to Montana or Idaho. Somewhere you can kill all deer you want., Alaska , the moon.
I want my country back too.. before you invaded my great grand parents.
Texas is going to change in the next 10 years. WATCH for that. COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU. Oh no wait I'm not saying that I'm going to shoot anybody in a the theater, Like crazy gun owners do. I'm smarter than that. Now being serious I don't mind people having a gun to protect yourself and your home, go hunting. I've done that. But when I hear all this crazy people saying that they need all this guns to fight the government , because they don't agree with the rest of the nation,. That's scary.
New concepts of gun control threw a inventors eyes, a new form of bar coding the serial number is a achievable solution,imagine a new scoring bar code system,its in the shape of a gatling gun slides down the muzzle of any weapon ( for easy of understanding designers prospective views with your vital interest at heart),and there are enough chambers with a window on each outer tube side , were the scripter dept and with angler score,with a scoring slide cutter going from 0-9 so each tube in the gatling cylinder scripted boring can be set as from 0-9,the carbon blade cutting up on the inner of the barrel to a thickness to represent the number such as bar codes,so by setting the numbers of the serial number of the weapon is thresh bearing spring to apply the scoring of the serial bar code number,as with the riffling a certain distances as the projective comes down the barrel picking up the bar code alignments,such as firing pins can be also lazar printed with the bar coding system or a alloying print can be inserted into the firing pin,for easy I.D who the owner is so not only is the casing bar coded but also the projective also bar coded,as for ammo the bar coding is a simply way to know stock numbers and location of a varieties of ammo,such as store and area location and also the rounds can be bar coded as well, for simplicities' sake of location of missing firer arms.
Knowing how to use the numbers for securing weapons is a safe and affordable way for new gun controls. As for the existing weapons that are already in peoples homes a simple slide and glide and turn can be more effective to upgrading the weapons with security of the bar coding system and new ones on the way created by major manufacturing's around the world,consult an expert in the design of the all new bar code barreling system created by security and national comfort zones around the world. Just a bit of humor there is a weapon and not on the markets or sold at stores or even designed by manufactures around the world,its called the snug aka hug it will out distance any shot around the world and the ammo is gentle whispers arm grasp around the waste with ammo of gentle kisses,and always hitting its mark the human heart and mind with trick shots hitting mutable targets with just one snug know snug ids guns spelled backwards,consult a expert for operational instructions ,most ladies and men know how to apply such maneuvers. Take care and have a great day. Consult a expert in to design of the car code engraving scoring,and make a great score amongst your loved ones. Bye
The Second Amendment was written by people who fled oppressive and tyrannical regimes in Europe, and refers to the right of American citizens to be armed for defense purposes should such tyranny rise in the United States. It is the right of the people to take up arms in defense of themselves, their families, and property in the face of invading armies or an oppressive government.
Make no mistake about it: to take away an American’s right to a semi-automatic rifle is to FULLY DISARM HIM. There is no Second Amendment; there is no right to keep and bear arms; there is no citizen militia; there is no liberty without the semi-automatic rifle!” The principal reason the colonists won the American Revolution is that they possessed weapons equivalent in power and precision to those of the British government. If the colonists had been limited to crossbows that they had registered with the king’s government in London, while the British troops used gunpowder when they fought us here, George Washington and Jefferson would have been captured and hanged.
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