[PJmedia] The president and his Leftist allies in Congress and the media have certainly done their best:In 2009, the first year of Barack Obama's presidency, the number of civilian firearms in the U.S. hit 310 million, according to the Congressional Research Service, exceeding the U.S. population for the first time. Gun sales have not slowed since. In 2013, the last year of official data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, there were about 357 million civilian firearms in the U.S. Responding to consumer demand, gun manufacturers have doubled their annual production, from 5.6 million in 2009 to nearly 11 million in 2013.
Gun manufacturer stocks have given investors 300 percent gains in the past five years, according to Reuters. That's four times better than the S&P 500 over the same period. Gary Kleck, a criminologist at Florida State University, called it "the Obama effect" in an Oct. 4 interview with the Washington Post: "High-profile shootings and talk of changing gun laws motivates gun owners to get more guns, and perhaps some non-owners to get one 'while the getting is good,'" he said.
And why, pray tell, are folks buying guns:
Boilard echoed the observation of many in the firearms business that self-defense has replaced hunting as the primary motivation for acquiring a weapon. While the state watches its revenue from hunting licenses decline, the self-defense industry is taking off. "The firearms market has changed over the past 20 years," said Boilard. "Twenty years ago, they were primarily for sport and hunting. Now they are being bought more for self-defense -- home and personal protection. The whole industry has switched."
Meanwhile --paging Fox Butterfield! -- even as sales have boomed, homicides by firearms have decreased:
The number and rate of firearm murders has hit a new low since the sky-high gun killings during the 1990s, with California topping an FBI list despite having some of the toughest anti-gun laws on the books. Data from the FBI and Pew Research Center show that all gun violence has declined since the Clinton era, though suicides blamed on guns has ticked up. In a new report, Pew said that between 1993 and 2000, the firearm murder rate dropped by almost half, from seven homicides to 3.8 homicides per 100,000 people. It also said that all gun deaths -- murder, suicide, police and accidental -- have dropped 30 percent since 1993.
The FBI data shows that the actual number of gun murders has dropped from 10,129 in 2007 to 8,454 in 2013. California had the most at 1,224, though it has several anti-gun laws in force.
California is also the most populous state in the Union, it should be noted. Good to see the American people taking our Constitution seriously, despite the barrage of propaganda from people who wish neither the country nor the Constitution well.