Trump Election Shows ‘Democrats Are Good for Gun Sales’

The election of President Trump – coupled with Republican control of the House and Senate – shows that “Democrats are good for gun sales.”

After all, under Barack Obama we witnessed 19 consecutive months of record background checks May 2015 through November 2016. In fact, so many background checks were performed January 1, 2016, through November 30, 2016, that those 11 months alone surpassed previous annual records for background checks.

While such checks were not a precise indicative of the number of gun sales taking place at retail, they certainly portended record or near-record sales. And those sales were driven, in part, by Obama’s relentless push for more gun control; a drive that was complimented by a gun control push more broadly sponsored by Democrat Party members of the House and Senate.

Concern that Hillary Clinton might win the 2016 presidential election fueled gun sales even more. According to Houston Public Media, Nova Firearm’s owner Tom Jenkins said he literally could not keep guns like AR-15s in stock as the presidential election drew closer. People were worried Clinton would win and institute a ban on “assault weapons” with the help of the Democrat Party.

Jenkins said, “During the political crisis we had dozens of them downstairs, and then there would be zero. And it would go again and then go again. And right up to the election, literally, brought them in, brought them up and sold them.”

But everything changed with the election of Donald Trump. For example, FBI figures show there were nearly 500,000 fewer checks in December 2016 than in December 2015, when a record 3,314,594 checks were conducted. This does not mean gun sales suddenly stopped. Rather, it means they stopped occurring at a record pace. The 2,771,159 checks that occurred in December 2016 still represent the third highest for any December on record.

And sales have continued to be off the record mark throughout the early part of 2017.

Fox News quotes State University of New York at Cortland’s Robert Spitzer, saying:

The trends really almost since Election Day or election night have been that gun sales have slacked off. When you take away Barack Obama and you give the Republicans control of both houses of Congress, which is extremely friendly to the gun lobby, then the political pressure subsides. And that surely is at least a key part of the explanation for the drop-off in sales.

Houston Public Media summed it up by suggesting the election of Trump shows “Democrats are good for gun sales.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.