US guns sales soar after Barack Obama's re-election

[Jazzy]

Gun sales in America are soaring in the wake of President Barack Obama's re-election with weapons retailers reporting AK-47s flying off shelves like hotcakes.



Owners of guns have been stocking up because they are concerned about a potential tightening of regulations on assault weapons in the president's second term.



In October the number of background checks on people applying to buy guns, an indicator of future sales, increased by 18.4 per cent.



There was a similar jump when President Obama was first elected in 2008. A total of 12.7 million background checks were carried out that year, up from 11.2 million the year before, and the number has been rising since then.



Shares in weapons manufacturers like Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger also surged after Mr Obama's re-election.



During the election campaign Mr Obama mostly steered clear of discussing gun control, but in a presidential debate on Oct 16 he gave his clearest statement yet on the issue.



He said: What I'm trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced.



President Bill Clinton introduced had restrictions limiting the use of semi-automatic weapons in 1994, but the ban expired in 2004. Under the Clinton-era ban magazines with more than 10 rounds, and weapons with threaded barrels, pistol grips and bayonets were prohibited.



Mr Obama would still have to get any new restrictions past Republicans in Congress, but gun owners say they fear a limiting of their right to bear arms which is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

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Do you think assault weapons should be banned? Why or why not?

 

[wirelessguru1]

Maybe that is part of his economic incentive plan...

 

[Jazzy]

Obama never said he was against banning guns or changing gun laws...

You're right. He's all for it:

He said: What I'm trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced.

 

[Fatal Dawn]

I too feel Obama has been quite moderate in his stance on gun control. He possibly even leans conservative on the issue. Here is what he actually said on the issue:

We're a nation that believes in the Second Amendment, and I believe in the Second Amendment. We've got a long tradition of hunting and sportsmen and people who want to make sure they can protect themselves. My belief is that we have to enforce the laws we've already got, make sure that we're keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, those who are mentally ill. We've done a much better job in terms of background checks, but we've got more to do when it comes to enforcement. But weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don't belong on our streets. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced. But part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence. Because frankly, in my home town of Chicago, there's an awful lot of violence and they're not using AK-47s. They're using cheap hand guns.

I don’t understand the fear that he will take away everybody’s guns when he has suggested otherwise. His policies on gun control reflect the generic rhetoric of: keep guns out of criminals’ hands and let the states decide the rest. In fact, his only radical (if you want to call it that) stance on the issue is the aforementioned re-installment of a ban on so-called assault-style weapons – a law that was already instituted in the past to protect law enforcement from ‘cop-killer’-style weapons.





Being from the Baltimore area, my views on so-called assault weapons might be a little biased. Regardless, I don’t feel a ban would do much, though. As I quoted Obama earlier when he said that a lot of the violence in the cities is not caused by these kinds of weapons; I rarely see criminals in Baltimore walking around with Uzis and assault rifles, but concealable, cheap handguns.

 

[Fatal Dawn]

On this specific issue, yes; he’s actually been quite conservative on the issue of gun control. I've heard people claim him to be this radical liberal who is out to take away everyone’s guns. That's giving him too much credit. He didn't come up with the ban on assault weapons and has only delivered generic, dismissive responses on gun control.