Obama Derangement Syndrome is actually good for the economy it turns out as employment in the firearms industry has gone up up up because insane people think Scary President Black Man is coming for their guns nubile daughters. Of course, there’s fierce debate about whether or not all the additional societal damage from all those extra guns outweighs the jobs (and I stand firmly on the hell no side), but it’s literally the only thing I’ve found to indicate there’s anything close to a positive benefit to anyone over the massive, deranged hate grudges carried by the bitter clingers. Still leaves it 99.66% negative, if you ask me.
There’s noticeable economic impact in Kansas at least according to the Wichita Eagle via McClatchy:
A report released earlier this month by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group for gun and ammunition manufacturers and retailers, said nationally that the firearms industry increased jobs by more than 30 percent and improved its economic impact by more than 66 percent between 2008 and 2011.
In that same period, the report said the industry added 1,202 jobs in Kansas and had an economic impact of more than $177 million.
The local firearms retail business has seen the addition of a new retailer to the market, Cabela’s, and the expansion of more established retailers. Gander Mountain, the St. Paul, Minn.-based outdoor specialty retailer, added a Gander Mountain Academy indoor shooting and simulation range and expanded its floor space for broader selection of firearms, ammunition and accessories – which it calls Gun World – at its WaterWalk store in downtown Wichita.
I’m sure the NRA is just bawling its eyes out at the thought of a second term for President Obama, and if Wichita gun range owner Mike Relihan is any example, these small businesses are just crushed by imaginary new regulations on their industry that of course could never pass Congress.
Retailers and industry officials say there are a number of external factors that have been driving sales, not the least of which is who is occupying the White House.
“I think it’s this last Democrat said some things, had a background that had some people worried … whether it’s real or not,” Relihan said, referring to President Obama.
Retailers said it’s not always just the party of the candidate that affects sales of firearms, but more the perception that a presidential candidate could propose legislation restricting sales of firearms or ammunition.
“That underlying fear is always there,” Holman said.
He said he thinks that’s part of the reason why firearms sales were so strong for the Bullet Stop in 2008, a presidential election year.
“It was definitely a big year,” Holman said.
2012 will be another “big year” for paranoid assholes to buy more guns, more bullets, more “protection” from the Kenyan Soshulist Usurper, more objects specifically designed to kill things. It’ll be awesome fun for everyone when these devices get used as intended, but at least they’re job creators!
Yutsano
Needs moar Stand Your Ground laws. Also. Too.
Clime Acts
Christ. Being from Kansas is so embarrassing sometimes…
toschek
So why is the NRA whining? Obama has been great for job creation in the death creation industry.
Baud
Sums up just about everything you need to know about modern U.S. politics.
c u n d gulag
I’d love to see some of these “Wannabe Minutemen” if they ever did decide to take arms against the Kenyan/Communist/Fascist/Socialist/Atheist/Muslim Dictator and the Military.
The soldiers would be telling one another, “Let them sh*t their pants first – and ask questions later.”
Ah, delusional and scared little men, with tiny dicks, and their big toys.
Well, I guess they can get a higher caliber gun – but there’s nothing in the world that’ll increase their IQ.
Corner Stone
@c u n d gulag: Yes, it’s always about the boys:
“Equally and perhaps more important to higher gun sales are efforts by the firearms industry itself. For one, it has been doing more to market specifically to women.
Bill Dunn, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said a lot more women are buying handguns for personal protection or getting into shooting sports.
“First Shots, our program that introduces new people to the shooting sports, 51 percent of these people who go are women,” Dunn said. Holman, Relihan and Juelich agree.
“You’re really seeing tremendous growth in female shooting experiences put on by the NSSF,” Holman said. “That’s bringing a lot of ladies out and (spurring) their interest in firearms.”
Corner Stone
Oh, and by the way…
U.S. Relaxes Drone Rules
Oh noes!! DRONES IN MY EEERRYWHERE!!
“includes targeting fighters whose names aren’t known but who are deemed to be high-value terrorism targets or threats to the U.S.”
AkaDad
By allowing gun owners to carry guns in national parks, Obama was giving gun owners a false sense of security before he takes all our guns away.
kdaug
Oh, come on, folks – you have to admit it’s a clever gambit.
Start a whisper (ish) campaign about something that’s not going to happen, and cash in.
I’d say the NRA and guns&ammo manufacturers have played their hand quite well here.
The real question is what will Obama be coming for next?
High fructose corn syrup? Stock up on your Coke now!
Depleted uranium? Get your lead-lined suits while you can! (On Sale!)
Clean air? Suck on that tailpipe as long as you can, baby, because Obama’s gonna come take it away from you. (Special Clearance Sale on Hummers! This week only!)
It’s kind of a meta-marketing thing
Corner Stone
And for Zandar and President Stuck:
The Confidence Fairy’s gonna get ya!
“Why Businesses Aren’t Investing in the US: CEO”
“Businesses aren’t investing in the United States because of a lack of consumer demand, International Paper CEO John Faraci said Friday.
“I think this was all about consumer spending and demand. You know, the problem we have is there’s inadequate demand to create jobs. We know how to respond when there is demand,” he said on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report.”
jncc
Oh good, a thread about guns.
Here’s something I just don’t understand. This morning I finished sighting in my .257 Weatherby. I’m dead on at 300 yards with Weaterby 87 grain. But when I switched to Hornady 90 grain I was slightly low, but also shot consistently to the left.
I can understand the variance in elevation due to the (slightly) heavier bullet, but why does it print left? There was no appreciable wind and I alternated the two loads, but kept getting this result.
Any ideas?
c u n d gulag
@Corner Stone:
First off, never step on a guy’s dick joke! :-)
Secondly, I can certainly see why women would be out buying guns.
If I was a woman, I’d want one handy, too, in case some Conservative politician came around wanting to stick something up my vagina to see if I’ve been using it in an approved manner.
Btw – I have no problem with hunting rifles.
It’s handguns I have a problem with.
And even then, one or two, might be ok, but why would anyone need more than that?
And how many bullets in a clip does one need?
If there are so many people attacking you and yours, or your property, what will a 3rd handgun do for you that the first two didn’t?
I admit it – I just don’t understand this obsession (fetish?) with handguns.
Knockabout
Well that’s just about the most puerile explanation of the economics of firearms manufacturers I think I’ve ever read. Everything is “but Obama is black so these white people are stupid racists” with you.
Get over you irrational hatred of everyone who doesn’t look like yourself. Do you hate Cole too?
Corner Stone
@jncc: Maybe the 90 grain reacts to the right hand twist in your barrel more?
And you say no appreciable wind, but is that really accurate across 300 yards?
Corner Stone
@c u n d gulag:
Allow you to keep firing, if needed?
c u n d gulag
@Corner Stone:
Does it occur to any Conservatives out there that the reason there’s a lack of consumer demand, is that there aren’t enough jobs, or jobs that pay enough, to create and maintain demand.
‘People ain’t got no money, ’cause they ain’t got no jobs!’
You’ve got to get paid before you can pay, and you’ve got to pay before you can consume.
Knockabout
@jncc: Individual loads can have serious variance. Also at that distance you have to account for rotation/Corliolis depending on where you’re standing in relation to the target.
jncc
@Corner Stone: It’s pretty accurate. Both those loads printed under 2″ off bags at 300- except for a couple of flyers that were my fault.
I put a 36x Leupold on it for now so I can get a sense of the rifle’s capabilities – I’ll swap that out for a 4-12x when I actually take it hunting so the accuracy in the field won’t be as good, of course.
shecky
The Paranoia Tax has been pretty well established since before the last election. Or perhaps that should be the Paranoia Stimulus.
Haydnseek
Excellent cartoon in the current issue of the New Yorker: Gun salesman standing in front of an entire wall of assault rifles asks customer on other side of counter “How much ground do you need to stand?”
jncc
@c u n d gulag: People are weird.
Chef friends I know have a dozen different 8-10 inch chef knives. Yes, a chef _needs_ 4 or 5 different knives, but they don’t need a dozen different chef knives.
Yes, I’m sure there are all kinds of little subtle differences between the blades and the handles and bla, bla, bla, but it’s just a fixation.
Hell, why do (some) women “need” 6 different pairs of black dress shoes?
quannlace
So what was the rational for wanting to carry guns in n. parks? Protection from Yogi the Bear and Old Faithful?
Chyron HR
@Knockabout:
Jeez, Zandar, can’t you just give your former co-worker back his red Swingline stapler so he can get some closure?
becca
There may come a day that the GOP regrets its gun ownership advocacy.
Frankensteinbeck
This kind of gun and militia explosion happened under Clinton too, of course. It’s much bigger under Obama, so that difference is presumably racism.
RepubAnon
@jncc:
Different alloy makeup of the bullets causing changes in the way the lands in the barrel grab and spin the two types of bullet? Different powder loads/brands causing differences in the pressure pushing the bullet (thus changing how the lands grip and spin the bullet)?
Try hand-loading some rounds using the same brass and the same powder, but using the two different bullets – the fewer variables, the easier it is to spot an issue.
;)
PS: Buying a gun to make you feel safe is like buying a car to give you mobility – without training and practice in the use of either device, you’ll be lucky if you don’t kill yourself or others.
c u n d gulag
@efgoldman:
These people overpay for guns that either serve no useful purpose, or break down on them?
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
Also the fact that Fox News and the entire Alternate Universe Media Complex was only beginning to get off the ground in the nineties. They’re much more plugged into the Paranoia Machine now than they were then, and they’ve been on it for longer so the addiction is that much more powerful.
(Not that I’m discounting the role of racial and cultural prejudice as an explanation).
ShadeTail
@Chyron HR:
Nah, deny that fucker his closure. He doesn’t deserve it, and anyway he’s some serious entertainment. All he needs is a rainbow colored wig and a red rubber nose, because he sure makes a clown of himself.
gbear
Thanks Kansas, just keep sending those corporate profits back to my home city, where more of us go to Gander Mountain stores to by camping gear and outdoor clothes.
gbear
Fun fact: Rachel Maddow’s first date with her current partner was a ‘ladies night’ at a local firing range. They’re both gun owners, although I doubt that they get hard-ons talking and thinking about them.
Amir Khalid
@jncc:
I’m not a pistolero myself (or is that a rifle you’re talking about?) but it does seem that you’d be better off sticking to the 87-grain ammo. Either that, or aim slightly high and to the right with the 90-grain ammo.
gbear
@jncc: If you just switch to shooting at moving targets you probably won’t notice the variance. Would also provide more real-life experience.
JoeShabadoo
Is the gun industry going to have a huge down slope in the future?
I remember reading about how places were sold out of ammo at one point in time because Obama had a apparently hired Voldemort to magic away all the guns and ammo.
Unless the ammo somehow goes bad or these people start shooting constantly so the guns actually melt I can’t imagine these people still buying guns outside of collectors. Eventually these people have to have enough guns and ammo that even their scared minds won’t want more. Assuming the fear subsides these people have guns and ammo for themselves and their family for years and years. Without constant stockpiling I don’t see how the domestic guns business can’t have a downturn. The market is flooded and blackity black muslim democrat will not be in office forever.
Corner Stone
@JoeShabadoo:
Flooded by whom? What products? Do you have a link?
No, I suppose you do not.
Fear is not the motivator for much of the primary and secondary gun markets.
And ammo went bye bye during the GWB admin. Huge increases in price because the main suppliers could not keep pace with military and police (para-military) demand. Citizen consumers sucked hind teat, and paid the price for it. Literally.
Ammo just recently went up 30% across the board. Raw material is scarce, usage is up. Hoarding and fear have little to do with it.
OzoneR
@quannlace:
Let’s ask the crazy right wingers who supported it…like Bernie Sanders.
gnomedad
Holy shit, it’s a gun nerd thread. Now I’ve seen everything at BJ.
JoeShabadoo
@Corner Stone:
He flat out says that fear has something to do with it. I am going by what was quoted in the blog post. If you want to say something different you need a quote, not me.
It also should have been obvious that I was only talking about the consumer market just like the article. If they stop buying things because of who is in the white house like the post says then one should expect sales to dip because they will have far more than they need for a non-dem president.
protected static
…to be fair, some of those paranoids buying guns post-election were doing so because they were worried about the onslaught of right-wing paranoids buying guns.
jncc
Thanks, but, you know, a .257 WBY w/ 36x scope isn’t exactly the kind of gun one purchases to feel safe, unless it is from the growing pronghorn or prairie dog menace.
John of Indiana
@kdaug: I *WISH* he’d come for our HFCS. That shit’s poison.
HobbesAI
@jncc: You could try using the Hornady 87 grain. If you’re not going too far left you may just be noticing spin drift.
JBM has a Trajectory/Drift calculator if you’re interested.
bob h
We probably should give credit to the Republican Presidential primary campaign for a lot of this, as it stirs up the muck in the Republican psyche.
SpotWeld
Won’t this cause the bottom to drop out of the used gun market in a couple years?
Has it already?
protected static
@SpotWeld: No, not really. There are some good deals to be had, but generally only on imported older surplus weapons.
SpotWeld
Then color me confused.
We have a market panic buying a large number of durable goods (guns, properly maintained last generations).
At some point the market will say, yeah, before I buy a new one, I better sell some of the old ones.
Right?
protected static
@SpotWeld: I wish. Ever since the 1994 Crime Bill, the perception of (many, not all) gun owners is that supply is threatened. And there is some truth in that, above and beyond the ‘commie libs gonna take my guns’ crap. ATF and the State Department have incrementally tightened the restrictions on surplus imports over the last 30+ years, all Chinese imports are banned, most Russian imports are banned, an attempt by the South Korean government to sell hundreds of thousands of M1 Garands and carbines back to the US has been a yes/no/maybe/kinda/sorta situation for years, American gun and ammunition makers have been swamped trying to meet wartime demands…