Daily Infographic Asks: ‘Should Firearm Industry Back Obama?’

Daily Infographic posted some interesting graphs, showing the dramatic increase in gun sales since Obama entered the presidential stage. For example:

Since 2008, states with publicly available concealed carry records show increases 46% to 161% more licensees.
The 2012 SHOT show was the biggest yet, with over 100 countries represented and a record attendance.
28 states reported an increase in hunting licenses.

The graph below shows fairly steady civilian gun sales through 2005, averaging 4.8M between 1995 and 2005. Then the GOP began losing control of the federal government, and sales began increasing, with record sales in 2009-2010 of over 7 million annually. So yes, it could be argued that Obama was good for gun sales, if looked at in sort of a opaque, delusional manner.

(Sources: ATF, National Shooting Sports Foundation, United States International Trade Commission.)

More good news before the bad.

The following three graphs show that despite burgeoning gun sales, America experienced long-term declines in firearms homicide, accidental shooting deaths, and firearms suicide rates. So much for the “more guns, more gun death” rhetoric.

(Sources listed above plus Centers for Disease Control.)

(Hat tip to Mike Menkus of Georgia Carry for conceptualizing these 3 correlations.)

However, keep in mind that as long as government continues to expand like Jabba the Hutt, gun rights–indeed, all rights–remain at severe risk. More government inevitably leads to more taxes, and if we can’t afford guns and ammunition due to loss of discretionary income, the Second Amendment becomes as irrelevant as if Brady won the war to ban our guns.

Don’t forget that under a GOP Congress, the federal budget grew 48% during the 2000-2006 period, posting deficits in the hundreds of billions between 2002 and 2006 (page 22). This doesn’t excuse or minimize Obama’s $$$ trillion plus deficits each year of his presidency (pages 22-23). The GOP isn’t the party of smaller government they’d like us to believe, and since 2010 the GOP House has been culpable by shirking their Constitutional (Section 7) duty to manage the budget, instead shifting blame onto the Senate and president. (New whine: “It’s Reid’s/Obama’s fault.”)

So take time to ensure your candidates support not only the Second Amendment, but also our right to be free from oppressive government.