The Effect of President Obama's Election on the Gun Industry

Every 4 years, presidential candidates spend millions of dollars to sell themselves to the American public. As part of this, candidates must convince their supporters that if their opponent is elected, it will be the end of America. As such, immediately following a presidential election, people are prone to paranoid and rash behavior, as was highlighted in South Park's "About Last Night..." episode (http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s12e12-about-last-night)

The most recent presidential election was no different. Republicans had been told that if the incumbent President Obama was re-elected, gun rights would be going down the drain. They are right to fear, as President Obama said in a speech given on October 16th regarding gun control, "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." As a result, weapon retailers have reported that AK-47s (and similar assault weapons) have been flying off the shelves like hotcakes.

In October the number of background checks on people applying to buy guns, an indicator of future sales, increased by 18.4 per cent. Mel Bernstein, owner of Dragonman Arms in Colorado Springs, told KOAA-TV that sales of semi-automatic weapons had boomed in recent days, "We're going from normally six to eight guns a day to 25. I stocked up; I got a stockpile of these AK-47s; we're selling these like hot cakes. Luckily I had an idea of what was going on because it happened with Clinton."

This has caused a surge in the gun industry. Economists estimate that this buying of guns has boosted the dollar value of the industry by 20%. Some estimates are even higher. And if restrictions on automatic weapons are imposed? The value of the gun industry has the potential to become even bigger, as guns become more expensive. As soon as such a bill is proposed in congress which appears to hold popular (or near popular) support, it will likely unleash another surge of gun sales, potentially even larger than this one as the threat becomes more real.

Either way, President Obama's recent election has boosted the gun industry in the United States and throughout the world.