Gun Sales Soar During Obama’s First Term: ‘He Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to the Firearm Industry’

[QuietDan]

A national story with a LOT of Nashville interviews in it.

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Gun Sales Soar During Obama’s First Term:

‘He Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to the Firearm Industry’

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tennessee lawyer Brian Manookian says he never considered himself a gun enthusiast. He owns just one handgun and was raised in a gun-free home. But the firearms industry has proven so successful in recent years that he decided to give up practicing law and make guns his livelihood.

It’s a decision that’s put Manookian on track to earn four times what he made as a corporate health care attorney, a job that earned him six figures right out of law school, he said.

And he’s far from alone. An analysis by The Associated Press of data tracking the health of the gun industry shows that President Barack Obama has presided over a heyday for guns.

Sales are on the rise, so much that some manufacturers cannot make enough fast enough. Major gun company stock prices are up. The number of federally licensed, retail gun dealers is increasing for the first time in nearly 20 years.

The U.S. gun lobby is bursting with cash and political clout. Washington has expressed little interest in passing new gun laws, despite renewed calls to do so after recent deadly shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin.

Four years ago the gun lobby predicted Obama would be the “most anti-gun president in American history.†Yet it is hard to find a single aspect of the gun world that isn’t thriving.

“The driver is President Obama. He is the best thing that ever happened to the firearm industry,†said Jim Barrett, an industry analyst at C.L. King & Associates Inc. in New York.

Obama has made no pledges to push for new gun control legislation and does not have the support in Congress or among voters even if he did. During this week’s presidential debate, he did suggest renewing a U.S. ban on assault weapons and coming up with an overall strategy to reduce violence. But both Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said the real need is for the government to enforce gun laws already on the books.

Meanwhile, sales are brisk.

Since opening a $5 million armory in Nashville last month, Manookian and his business partner have outdone their own expectations, selling inventory three to four times faster than they expected. The facility has high ceilings and granite fixtures in the bathroom and provides instructional courses and a shooting range in addition to firearms for sale.

“It is a very strong investment,†Manookian said.

Others agree.

For the first time since 1993, the number of federally licensed retail gun dealers in the U.S. increased slightly in 2010 and 2011. The country added 1,167 licensed retail gun dealers, according to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives records. After the assault weapons ban of 1994 – now expired – the number of gun dealerships dropped annually until 2010. As of October 2012, there were 50,812 retail gun dealers – 3,303 more than in 2009.

“Business has been very good,†said Frederick Prehn, who a year ago opened a small gun store above his dentistry practice in Wausau, Wis. In the past year, Prehn has relocated twice to larger spaces and gone from one employee to eight.

Gun enthusiasts look at weapons at the Browning booth on the floor at the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meetings and Exhibits on April 14, 2012 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Some gun store owners can’t keep shelves stocked, said Brian Jones, owner of Bullseye Shooter’s supply in Painted Post, N.Y. Jones said he opened his gun store in November 2010. In his first year, he said he sold between 600 and 700 guns. A little more than halfway through his second year, he’s already sold 700.

For the first time in the company’s history, Sturm Ruger & Co. Inc. stopped taking orders for a couple of months this year. Ruger, one of the nation’s largest gun manufacturers, has since resumed taking orders, though gun-sellers say demand is still outpacing production.

Dan Wesson Arms, Inc., a small gun manufacturer that sells to a niche market, stopped taking orders this spring because the company had sold out the entire year’s production, spokesman Jason Morton said. The company has stopped taking orders before, but never so early on the entire line, he said.

“Wouldn’t you want to be in a business where customers are just begging to hand you money?†said Bill Bernstein, owner of East Side Gun Shop in Nashville.

Obama is not yet through his first term, but the federal government already has conducted about as many background checks for gun owners and prospective buyers on his watch as it did during the first six years of George W. Bush’s presidency. In the first 3 1/2 years of the Bush administration, the FBI conducted about 28 million background checks. During the same period of the Obama administration, the FBI conducted more than 50 million. The gun industry uses the number of background checks as a reliable indicator of demand.

Ruger and Smith & Wesson represent nearly 30 percent of the U.S. gun manufacturing industry and lead the market in production of pistols and revolvers, according to government statistics. The two companies have been running production lines around the clock, hiring workers and operating at maximum capacity, said Barrett, an industry analyst who also owns Ruger stock.

Ruger’s sales have increased 86 percent since Obama took office, and Smith & Wesson’s sales have gone up nearly 44 percent, compared with 18 percent for overall national retail sales.

And the companies have big expectations for the industry’s future, as they’re spending more money on research and development than ever before.

Illinois gun owners and supporters file out NRA applications while participating in an Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day convention before marching to the Illinois State Capitol Wednesday, March 7, 2012 in Springfield, Ill. (Credit: AP)

The NRA itself has done well, too. The lobbying organization has had more cash on hand during the Obama years than it had since 2004, finishing 2010 with more than $24 million, according to the most recent figures available.

“Which makes it incredibly ironic that the gun lobby is opposing Obama,†said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Gross said Obama, who initially campaigned to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired under Bush, has done what he said was “disappointingly little†on gun control.

But the gun lobby says the success of the industry does not indicate that Obama is good for Second Amendment rights.

“This is the most dangerous election in our lifetimes,†NRA chief executive officer Wayne LaPierre said in February, a point he’s made regularly during the NRA’s campaign to defeat Obama.

The gun lobby stands by its 2008 predictions that Obama would be anti-gun. NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam noted Obama’s appointment of two Supreme Court justices whom the NRA considers anti-gun, plus Obama’s support of a United Nations arms trade treaty and the botched operation called Fast and Furious, which the NRA says was concocted as part of a plan to enforce new gun restrictions.

“Gun owners and hunters fear that a second Obama administration with no future political campaigns to worry about will try to destroy this great American freedom,†Arulanandam said.

Fears of a Democratic president taking office and issuing stricter gun control laws led to an initial spike in gun sales in 2008, giving dealers some of the highest profit margins they’d ever seen. But even after it became clear Obama was not going to make gun control a priority as president, the industry has continued to do well.

Fear of crime may be driving some sales. The number of violent crimes rose by 18 percent in the U.S. in 2011, according to Justice Department figures released this week. It was the first year-to-year increase for violent crime since 1993, marking the end of a long string of declines.

Firearm sales typically increase during poor economic times, said Steve Sanetti, chief executive officer and president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the industry. More Americans are hunting and shooting for recreation as well, he said. Sanetti attributes that to military servicemen and women with firearms experience returning to civilian life and wanting to keep up with shooting as a pastime. He also said recreational shooting is a relatively cheap and accessible hobby, drawing in new buyers.

Voters have made clear that gun control isn’t a priority. A recent AP-National Constitution Center poll found that 49 percent of adults felt laws limiting gun ownership infringe on the public’s right to bear arms, while 43 percent said such laws do not infringe on those rights. After the recent mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin, 52 members of Congress sponsored a bill to track bulk sales of ammunition, but the legislation went nowhere.

The firearms industry entrepreneur Manookian said it is clear that guns are a priority for Americans. People around the country are waiting in lines at shooting ranges, he said, cash registers at gun stores are ringing with $1,000 purchases and his brand new armory in Nashville is in the black two weeks after it opened.

___

Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo and Pete Yost, AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius, and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

Edited October 20, 2012 by QuietDan

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Amazing, isn't it?

[runco]

Whoever thinks that they can put the genie back in the bottle, needs to read this story.

Edited October 20, 2012 by Runco

[Dolomite_supafly]

Good for them. I am glad to see they are doing so well so soon. Hopefully the trend continues.

Dolomite

[Guest PapaB]

I saw on Fox news yesterday that, since January 2009 when O took office, Cabelas stock has increased over 800 percent. Ruger and S&W have increased over 350 percent each. I guess he accidentally helped part of the economy. Wish I'd bought stock in them.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

That's the reason I chose my avatar. Spells it all out!

[mikegideon]

All this popularity and Obama yucks up a gun ban on National TV. What a douche. Kudos to the Armory.

[Oh Shoot]

If Mitt surprises me and gets elected he needs to free up the guns and ammo from China.

Stupid we can buy them from the Russians but not the Chinese.

- OS

[mikegideon]

If Mitt surprises me and gets elected he needs to free up the guns and ammo from China.

Stupid we can buy them from the Russians but not the Chinese.

- OS

I noticed something on the CNN site today. Mitt has spent significantly less money in the battleground states than Oblama. I'm pretty sure he could go dollar for dollar. I still speculate that he's been holding until he can "see the whites of their eyes". The NRA ad that started running yesterday is pretty powerful stuff too.

There's a decent chance that the good people of Amer'ca will send Barry's Commie ass back to Chicago.

Interesting data...

http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/campaign-tracker/?hpt=hp_t1

Edited October 20, 2012 by mikegideon

[Guest ThePunisher]

There's a decent chance that the good people of Amer'ca will send Barry's Commie ass back to Chicago.

That's my wish. Commies just don't belong in our government, and I hope they remodel and fumigate the WH before Romney moves in.

Edited October 20, 2012 by ThePunisher

[kieefer]

That's the reason I chose my avatar. Spells it all out!

Yea, but it's really an eyesore. I hope you'll remodel in 2013.

[mikegideon]

Yea, but it's really an eyesore. I hope you'll remodel in 2013.

It helps to meet him. That Obama image goes away immediately

[Guest travr6]

You people realize that Romney signed an assault weapons ban don't you?

Romeny sucks just as much as Obama.

[vontar]

That's my wish. Commies just don't belong in our government, and I hope they remodel and fumigate the WH before Romney moves in.

They might want to start the eviction notice early if other cases in the news are any indication.

(remember that woman in Detroit can't evict the squatter that just moved in and thinks she has a right to it.)

[mikegideon]

You people realize that Romney signed an assault weapons ban don't you?

No. We're stupid, just like the NRA

[Guest 6.8 AR]

You people realize that Romney signed an assault weapons ban don't you?

Romeny sucks just as much as Obama.

Making the circuit?

[Guest travr6]

No. We're stupid, just like the NRA

I see a lot of comments acting like Romney will be the savior.

Trading Obama for Romney is like trading a Ford Fiesta for Chevy Pinto.

[nightrunner]

I see a lot of comments acting like Romney will be the savior.

Trading Obama for Romney is like trading a Ford Fiesta for Chevy Pinto.

Ford made the Pinto, not Chevy.

Edited October 21, 2012 by nightrunner

[TMF]

I see a lot of comments acting like Romney will be the savior.

Trading Obama for Romney is like trading a Ford Fiesta for Chevy Pinto.

That depends on what your priorities are. Romney isn't as conservative as many would like, but that is the most conservative candidate that has a chance of winning. If it is all the same in your opinion then stay home and don't vote or vote third party; but don't whine when one wins and you'd prefer the other.

[mikegideon]

That depends on what your priorities are. Romney isn't as conservative as many would like, but that is the most conservative candidate that has a chance of winning. If it is all the same in your opinion then stay home and don't vote or vote third party; but don't whine when one wins and you'd prefer the other.

Did you copy and paste that from one of the gazillion times we've all said it before, or make it up on the spot? It's like trying to drive a railroad spike with a rubber hammer.

[mikegideon]

Ford made the Pinto, not Chevy.

Don't let facts get in the way of a religious rant

[TMF]

Did you copy and paste that from one of the gazillion times we've all said it before, or make it up on the spot? It's like trying to drive a railroad spike with a rubber hammer.

Ha, yeah, just a little political this morning. Had a conversation with the wife where she is considering not voting at all. Tennessee is going to Romney, so it is moot regarding how many people stay home out of frustration, but it is the principle of it. Folks fought and died for the right to choose our leaders. I look at it as less of a right and more of a duty, even if the person is voting for Obama. This election cycle is irritating me on that point. Even voting third party is great, so long as the person isn't planning in whining when Obama wins over Romney.

[mikegideon]

Ha, yeah, just a little political this morning. Had a conversation with the wife where she is considering not voting at all. Tennessee is going to Romney, so it is moot regarding how many people stay home out of frustration, but it is the principle of it. Folks fought and died for the right to choose our leaders. I look at it as less of a right and more of a duty, even if the person is voting for Obama. This election cycle is irritating me on that point. Even voting third party is great, so long as the person isn't planning in whining when Obama wins over Romney.

Yeah. I can't get my girlfriend interested at all. Pisses me off so much that I stole the Giessele trigger out of her AR. She'll probably vote for Obama 'cause he's dreamy.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

She better not, Mike! Splits in households make me nuts. I used to argue with my mother until she died about that.

Dad used to, also. He never figured her out about that. Most of my Sumner County relatives are old time Democrats

and can't see the forest for the trees. Crazy folks!

[QuietDan]

Reduced one grown adult cousin to tears by outlining Obama failures during family gathering. She was absolutely unable to counter any of the Obama failure points with anything other than her feeeeeeeelings. She felt that she was being personally attacked and fled the gathering in tears and drove home, leaving her husband and son to hitch a ride with other family members. Very pitiful. The rest of us sat there and watched the melt-down in total amazement.

Edited October 21, 2012 by QuietDan