I would say that fear of policies that haven’t even been proposed, drummed up by the NRA, have resulted in increased sales. The NRA is a very effective advocate for its advertisers.
I don’t care about the numbers. I know that the Ruger and S & W sales numbers could be verified by looking up annual reports on line, but I’m not going to do it, because I don’t care. I know that a bunch of entities who have a direct interest in increased gun sales make a lot of noise every time a Democrat is elected president, and that that noise results in increased prices, shortages and increased revenue for the manufacturers.
What the hell is your point? If it is that direct actions of Obama have resulted in increased sales for guns makers, then I think you are wrong. Aggressive gun control efforts? Are you kidding? When is the last time you saw a politician with the balls to aggressively try to control guns?
That’s my subjective estimate based on going into a lot of gun stores in 2012 and seeing all the “assault” style weapons were sold out. Also it was hard to buy even a revolver from Smith and Wesson, because they curtailed production of non-assault weapons so they could try to better keep up with demand on M&P pistols and AR15s. If you can cite a better estimate I’m all ears. FWIW I think 75% is more likely low than high.
Then you and I have wildly different ideas of what constitutes “aggressive gun control efforts.” And respectfully, I believe yours is based in emotion, not fact.
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An attempt to do the politically impossible is political theater, not aggressive gun control. Like the repeated votes to repeal Obamacare. Theater. Posturing. Surely you are familiar with the concept.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation compiles this sort of information in their annual Firearms Retailer Survey Report, for which they charge $50 for members, and $500 to non-members.
The Truth About Guns, a popular enthusiast site, published some of the numbers from the 2012 report, including this handsome chart of sales by category for 2009, '10, and '11. As you can see, while assault rifles are popular, and are gaining in popularity, handguns dominate the market, being about twice as popular as the next best-seller, which is assault rifles.
I’m telling you, concealed carry is pushing sales at least as much as a prospective AWB.
John Entwistle of The Who owned over 200 instruments at the time of his death. Jay Leno owns over 100 cars and 30 motorcycles. For many, guns are a hobby, no different from playing bass or working on old cars, or collecting them.
He’s trying to make Obama supporters feel like failures, not just for failing to actually achieve gun control, but for being directly responsible for a massive increase in the number of guns in existence.
I would really like to see the graph go back further because back in the day, “assault weapons” were relatively fringe. Almost of those firearms would be true assault rifles though. And I would really like to see what the graph would show in 2012. Also handguns with magazines holding more than 10 rounds were banned too, which these day is most handguns.
I’d say CCW is pushing sales but CCW is not what literally emptied gun shelves in 2012.
I’m shocked - shocked! - that Kable says his view may not be fully based on facts.
So your ‘subjective’ estimate is based on the fact that a couple of stores you went into, you found it hard to buy an ‘assault’ style gun there. Maybe they sell like hot cakes. Or maybe they don’t sell worth shit so they don’t bother stocking very many.
You said it was also hard to by even a revolver from S&W - the exact same situation, yet here, you instead assume it’s *not *because they’re selling well, it’s because another gun is selling well?
Handguns are by far the most popular type of gun sold in the US. Assault rifles did see a rise in popularity in 2011…but so did handguns.
In any event, I don’t know what the big deal is. In addition to the points I noted above, it’s worth noting that one of the biggest changes in recent years is the expansion of NICS E-Check, which allows federally licensed dealers to do unassisted NICS checks. The number of E-Check users was minimal up until 2005, but started rising sharply from 2007, going from under 2,000 to 2,726 in 2009, 3,766 in 2011, and over 5,000 as of 2012. How this is somehow supposed to make Obama and his supporters ‘failures’ is beyond me.
Not exactly, the magazines were banned, but not the firearms themselves. They were instead issued with 10-round magazines with a floorplate that had a spacer to reduce capacity to 10. The only handguns actually banned from production by the AWB were those that accepted detachable magazines, and two of these features:
Magazine that attaches outside the pistol grip
Threaded barrel to attach barrel extender, flash suppressor, handgrip, or suppressor
Barrel shroud that can be used as a hand-hold
Unloaded weight of 50 oz (1.4 kg) or more
A semi-automatic version of a fully automatic firearm.
It could well be that 2012 was different from '09-'11, but since the thread is about the entire Obama administration and not just 2012, it’d be drowned out the the data from other years.
I saw the same thing, and they were selling well; it just doesn’t mean that such rifles were 75%+ of new sales, I think it’s more indicative that demand for such weapons increased faster than expected, and outstripped supply. If you look at the chart I linked to, the jump in sales from '10 to '11 was substantially higher for assault rifles than for any other category, which surely took many manufacturers by surprise.
It’s based on my observations. I’ve been pretty up front about that, and that my guess was a guess. Are we not allowed to make observations?
I’ve been to a lot more than a couple stores. I know a number gun store employees, owners, manufacturers insiders, etc. So I think my observations are a lot better than yours are.
I assure you, it’s the former and I challenge you to prove it’s the latter.
Yes, Smith and Wesson curtailed production of revolvers to keep up with demand of M&P pistols and M&P (AR15) rifles. I know people who work for Smith and Wesson.
Gun buyer have been buying “high” capacity pistols in great quantities because they know that Obama et al. wants to ban them along with other “assault” weapons.
Just saying you guys sell millions of the very guns you hate the most. It’s not a big deal to me, it actually makes me happy. “Assault weapons” went from fringe to mainstream. You can buy them at Walmart now.
I’m not sure how changing the form of checks makes the overall numbers change since they were generally mandatory for dealer sales since 1998. If anything more sales are made now that CCW holders can purchase guns without them and CCW holder numbers have increased dramatically over the last few years.
See that’s what this thread is about. To educate you with regards to what was previously beyond you.