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News & ArtsFriday, November 7, 2008
2008 / Politics The Backlash Begins
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Fears of a Dem crackdown lead to boom in gun sales
"I think they're going to really try to crack down on guns and make it harder for people to try to purchase them," said Smith, 32, who taught all five of her children—ages 4 to 10—to shoot because the family relies on game for food.
Last month, as an Obama win looked increasingly inevitable, there were 62,000 more background checks for gun purchases than in October 2007, a 25 percent increase. And they were up about 8 percent for the year as of Oct. 26, according to the FBI.
It makes a kind of sense—Obama supports the assault weapons ban, voted for the Illinois handgun ban, voted to leave gun manufacturers open to lawsuits, and so on. All of which is fine. But if gun sales keep up this way, it might not matter.
Anybody holding stock in Smith and Wesson? Don't sell it for a couple of months.
1
Their family relies on game for food? We still have that here? I guess I'm sheltered in a big city.
Also, I thought they were all buying guns to go shoot that black guy...
3
@1, me too. :( Now that the election is over we should start donating money to the secret service. :(
4
@1 The "we rely on game for food" is just an excuse. They hunt and they eat what they hunt, but they certainly don't 'rely' on it.
And people like this are way too incompetent to actually assassinate the President. They talk a lot, but they won't get anywhere near him with a gun.
5
Actually, N, while it probably is an excuse, in reality some families do rely on game for food. When I was growing up in BC, there were a few winters when hunting was half our food supply. Mind you, this was in the mountain rural areas, and getting to town through 20 foot snow drifts wasn't always an option.
6
Anybody nostalgic for the Clinton Years should enjoy this return to those halcyon days of crazy conspiracy-preaching militia types arming themselves in preparation for the End Times. I expect the cottage industry of manifesto production to experience a real resurgence in the coming months and years. American ingenuity in action!
7
A relative has collected thousands of guns. I'm thinking for some of these people it's not the guns themselves but the act of purchasing a gun. Gun shopping. Don't know how exactly because I've never tried it.
If you like buying guns more than owning guns, you're not going to be happy under a sane government, no matter how many guns you acquire now.
8
This is fairly normal. Any hint of local, state or federal legislation that might limit access to firearms or ammunition causes people who are interested in guns to typically buy as soon as possible, not only to avoid not getting their favorite toy but also increasing prices.
Gun owners encompass a wide variety of people. Yes many are grumpy republican rednecks, but not all, yes most of them take guns too seriously, yes their fears may seem irrational and overblown, but since this is an important issue to them it's not hard to imagine why all of the above is true.
It may seem stupid that guns are so damned important to people, especially since guns are something that can very drastically affect the lives of others (by you know ending them). This stupid obsession is just another stupid obsession though.
People wonder why gun folks need big fun explodey toys and they come up with some reasons. Rifles and shotguns you can justify with hunting, though not assault rifles and anti-personnel weapons. Handguns fine "self defense", but depending on who you talk to the definition of what you "need." The issue is multifarious and quite complex both within and without the gun world.
Frankly nobody needs guns, but none of us need anything more than food, shelter and water, so it's up to an individual what they are willing to accept as a justification for what we think we "need" and why.
9
Hm, and what does the fact this woman popped out five kids in about six years tell you?
Maybe her family wouldn't have to "rely on game for food" so much - if there weren't so damned MANY of them.
10
Those guys are just flush with capital from selling all their stocks to avoid increases in capital gains.
11
All these guns being purchased will just increase the number of dead gun-owner wives and children.
Murder/suicide and accidental discharges will go up, but the number of Scary Home Invading Negroes and Black Helicopter ZOG troops killed will be pretty much diddly/squat.
13
Okay, are these people really afraid that Obama is going to take their guns away, or are they gearing up for their militia uprising?
14
Don't do what Clinton did and pass gun laws that lose a Dem congress. Get your work on all the other things. Solidify your support for the next election. Keep a majority congress. Forget any new gun laws. Enforce the one's we have!
15
A lot of people are going down the rabbit hole of "economic downturn=increase in robberies" as well. That plus the probably overlapping gun control fearers means a Christmastime double whammy helping gun dealers keep up with their mortgages. Blech.
16
I should point out most of the new gun sales were to liberals like me who know how to hunt ... and were just getting ready in case Comrade Bush won a third term.
(jj about myself buying them, but you get the drift)
20
So, Amelia @7, maybe they're just trying to reinvigorate the retail economy?
Hmmm.
Interesting.
Could also be they were spending their money elsewhere and went back to prior behavioral patterns - or caught up.
21
14 and 16 are correct
You'd surprised how liberals own guns.
If Democrats squander their opportunity to really accomplish something and fracture their unity over attempting a new gun ban and actually succeed, this liberal will be adding a few more AK's to his collection before the ban goes in effect.
I'll be far from alone in this, Bill Clinton went down as the biggest gun salesman in history thanks to the flawed assault weapons ban. All a ban does is create a flurry of buying that might not happen otherwise and increase the value of the multitude of already existing pre-ban weapons that are still for sale.
22
@20: Hey, Will.
Far be it from me to restrict pyro entertainment. That would be terrible. But there are a lot of fun things to set on fire that don't involve guns, even if you grew up in a state where fireworks were illegal as I did. Hooch. Paint thinner. Hair spray (oh god, we had so much rural 1980's distraction burning hair spray). Aerosol cans (in shallow rivers). Sofas (in fields). I hear someone set a stuffed Trigger on fire at Burning Man. Dan Tanner of Eastern Oregon was interesting before 9/11 put a cramp in his style. Tanner has written books, that were published by the late brilliant Ken Kesey. There's also at least one Tanner video. Dan used to sell substances ("tannerite") that would explode when shot, but only when shot. And bird scarifiers, because we all have a problem with damn birds.
23
ever see one of those "piss off a liberal...buy a gun" bumper stickers? i saw one last week. pulled up next to the guy, rolled down my window and informed him that i was a liberal and he could have all the damn guns he wanted as far as i was concerned.
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