Obama is good news for U.S. gun dealers

The fight for our 2nd amendment rights from a Canadian perspective.

By Sheldon Alberts, 11 April, Canwest News Service
WASHINGTON – Ralph Scott has an easy explanation for why sales at his gun shop – the Lock, Stock and Barrel – have been booming since Barack Obama’s election last November.
-That is only half the story. Guns sales are also high individual to individual and are being doled out through American families. People that have never owned a gun prior to obama are now packing heat.

“Here’s the sad fact of the matter – our business thrives on bad news,” he says.

Scott’s firearms store in Portsmouth, Ohio, an economically stressed river town on the edge of Appalachia, has seen a 40 to 50 per cent spike in sales over the past five months, reflecting a national surge in demand for personal- use weapons that dates to just before the Nov. 4 election.

Across the United States, firearms buyers have reported difficulty finding ammunition at major retailers like Walmart, while manufacturers like Winchester and Remington Arms say they are running at full capacity.
-America has no military equal but feel threatened enough to arm themselves-hmmm who are they worried about? If only 1-5% of American gun owners decide to violently resist any Government attempt to seize their weapons, they will have the numbers to succeed. I should add I think 25-35% of Americans will resist. More in some locations but never less.

The evidence of a sustained run on guns isn’t just anecdotal.

The FBI says the number of criminal background checks – required for guns bought from licensed dealers – conducted from November through February jumped by almost 30 per cent from the previous year.

Firearms retailers and gun rights lobbyists say two factors are compelling Americans to stock up on guns – worries Obama will push for stricter gun control, and fear of rising crime as the economic recession deepens.
-Count me in with both groups.

“The economy has something to do with it, because I think a lot of people here are afraid of the disintegration of society and things turning into anarchy,” says Scott. “People are starting to take responsibility for their own safety. They realize the police can’t be everywhere at once.”
-I am often critical of the police but I realize they are doing the best they can with the hand they were dealt. Many will also refuse to seize weapons and ally themselves with the gun owners. I have talked with many locally and they agree if politicians want to seize guns then they will have to do it alone.

Under Obama, he adds, “the economy is getting progressively worse.”

Obama earned the ire of gun owners – and the National Rifle Association – during the election campaign by supporting renewal of the federal ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004. He also endorsed closing the “gun show loophole” in existing federal gun control law, which allows sales of privately owned firearms without background checks.

Obama’s campaign remark about “bitter” gun owners only stirred further resentment among gun enthusiasts.
-Remember gun owners-guns are not enough; you will also needs pikes to place heads on of politicians that voted to seize your property. You should already be researching gun control groups and spokesmen near your home. You never know when you might want to send them a nice letter asking them to reconsider starting a civil war.

“I would say that President Obama has done more to mobilize gun owners today than Paul Revere did to mobilize the patriots 200 years ago,” says Erich Pratt, a spokesman for Gun Owners of America, a Virginia-based lobby group. “He’s been an incredible motivator, not just in terms of people becoming politically aware, but also actually going to the store and buying guns and ammunition.”

Pratt’s sentiment is shared by the head of the nation’s powerful gun lobby.

Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, last month described the current stockpiling of guns and ammo by Americans as “one of the greatest freedom movements in the world right now.”

But some of the reaction to Obama’s election borders on hysteria, say gun control advocates.
-The evil king has already done massive amounts of damage to America and dismissing him and his army of minions is not a sound strategy.

One Texas gun dealer referred to Obama – just three days after his election – as a “gun snatcher” who would send his own socialist police force to seize weapons.

Brian Malte, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says groups like the NRA are driving anti-Obama sentiment to dangerous levels with ill-founded claims about his gun control policies.

“The NRA is stoking the fears of people out there. They talk about how the Obama administration is going to take away their guns,” says Malte. “Ultimately, sometimes there are consequences for their actions.”
-There are also consequences for organizations that publicly call for ignoring the Constitution. Do not start a fight expecting the police to protect you; many have already picked a side and it is not the same as yours.

Malte cites the April 4 shooting of three Pittsburgh police officers. The alleged gunman, Richard Poplawski, told his best friend that he didn’t like the “Zionist control” of the government, feared the imposition of “military policing” and said “there was about to be a gun ban” in the United States.
-As unfortunate as that incident was it serves to remind people that police are not trained to fight a foe willing to die and police are not trained to fight door to door, house to house, neighborhood by neighborhood. Gun owners (many ex military) would quickly organize themselves into militias and help neighbors resist if it should ever be necessary.

The White House has repeatedly offered reassurances that Obama “respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms.” He supported a Supreme Court decision reversing a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., and Obama has not pursued any gun control initiatives.
-And he will not do so until after the 2010 elections, many democrats know they can easily lose this election and obama will wait until after the election to strike.

All the same, Attorney General Eric Holder stirred gun owners’ concern in February when he commented that smuggled U.S. assault rifles were being used to fuel Mexico’s drug war.
-A lie we have already disproved.

Holder said the Obama administration had “a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons.”
-Ban away and then Mr Holder come search my house and see if I am in compliance.

Holder quickly backed away from the comments amid intense opposition from members of Congress, including a group of 65 pro-gun Democrats.
-More like democrats that are worried about reelection.

“Both Obama and Holder have articulated pieces of legislation that they want to see passed,” said Pratt.

“That, right there, tells us something. We know what their path is.”

The renewed debate about gun control comes amid a flurry of mass shootings – including the killing of 12 people last week in Binghamton, N.Y. – and as the U. S. prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the Columbine massacre on April 20, 1999.

A decade later, “we don’t have any stronger federal gun control laws” in America, Malte says.

The Brady Campaign lauds Obama for having a “very good” record in support of tighter gun laws. The recent high-profile shootings “will start to push the issue of stronger gun laws higher and higher on his agenda,” Malte believes.
-We already have tens of thousands of gun control laws. Protect the citizens and not the criminals, lower the crime rate, build more prisons, control our border and then we can talk, until then I keep my guns, ammo and continually plan to welcome anyone that attempts to seize my property. I keep a few cold beers on hand so we can sit down together and chat.

Gun control opponents are readying for any political fight.

“These shootings also happen in countries with strict gun control laws,” Pratt says. “Gun control doesn’t stop these shootings.”

As the political debate heats up, gun store owners say demand for firearms remains strong.

Immediately after the November election, Virginia gun dealer Bernie Conatser told a U.S. network that sales outstripped those during times of national stress like the 9/11 terror attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the Y2K panic.
-And yet the MSM continues to claim king obama is popular. I see the evidence pointing the other way.

Asked by a reporter this week if business at his Virginia Arms Company remained brisk, Conatser said he had no time for a telephone interview.

“I’ve got a line full of customers standing in front of me,” Conatser said, “the proof of what you’re calling me about right now.”
-Remember folks with a little knowledge you can manufacture your own weapons. No need to stand in line, American ingenuity is a wonderful thing.

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