When the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported the economic impact of the firearms industry increased from $19 billion in 2008 to $31 billion in 2011, it became a running joke that President Barack Obama was the “gun salesman of the year” for 2012.
And the phenomenon was trending upward, as there were a record 1.5 million background checks requested in December 2011.
It’s hard to say how Obama may have felt about his faux-title, but he’s all but certain to retain it based on a Bloomberg News report Thursday that said U.S. gun makers “churned out a record number of firearms in 2012.”
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According to Bloomberg News:
More than 8.57 million guns were produced in 2012, up 31 percent from 6.54 million in 2011, according to data released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which has been tracking the statistics since 1986.
Almost as many guns — 26.1 million — were produced during Democrat Barack Obama’s first term as president as during the entire eight-year presidency of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, the ATF data show.
The last sentence bears repeating — almost as many guns were produced during Obama’s first term as during Bush’s entire eight-year presidency. While Bloomberg tried to make the case that gun sales increase under all Democrat presidents, that stat is telling.
A few highlights:
Smith & Wesson reported record sales of $588 million for the fiscal year that ended April 30, up 43 percent over 2012.
Sturm Ruger reported net sales of $506.4 million during the first nine months of 2013, a 45 percent jump from the same period in 2012.
Clearly, the Obama administration and its gun control mentality has been a boon to the gun industry.
“Barack Obama is the stimulus package for the firearms industry,” Dave Workman, senior editor of Gun Mag, told Bloomberg. “The greatest irony of the Obama administration is that the one industry that he may not have really liked to see healthy has become the healthiest industry in the United States.”
Even more ironic, it may be the gun industry that’s keeping the economy afloat.
According to The Washington Times, Lawrence Keane, a senior vice president for National Shooting Sports Foundation, said in 2012: “It’s fair to say, and the numbers demonstrate it, that our industry in a very poor economy is doing very well and is helping to lead the economic recovery.”
As for the gun salesman of the year, the industry may very well retire the award at the end of Obama’s second term.
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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