Gun sales for June are the highest recorded in 17 years. (Photo: New Orleans Times Picayune)
With a record number of background checks conducted in June by the FBI on gun transfers, a Second Amendment group is declaring President Obama the best gun salesman in the United States.
The remarks comes as the FBIs National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, program released data for last month showing some 1,527,057 checks performed, the highest for any June in the program’s 17 year history. Further, the figures are more than three times higher than those tallied for June 2005.
These figures, even when adjusted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation to weed out non-sales checks to 886,825, still marks last month as the highest for any June on record and show a nearly 10 percent increase from the same month in 2014.
The reason for the jump, as related by Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Chairman Alan Gottlieb, could be due to recent statements from the White House.
“Barack Obama is a heck of a gun salesman,” said Gottlieb. “All he has to do is complain in an interview about his disappointment at not being able to push more gun control, and sales spike.”
Noting that booming sales of firearms and ammunition has pumped over $800 million into congressionally-mandated federal aid to wildlife restoration programs this year, which could help fuel expansion of the shooting sports, Gottlieb held that the legacy of the current President might be very pro-gun.
“It’s a dubious honor for the president, I’m sure,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb chuckled. “After all, Barack Obama has been advocating all forms of gun control since before he was elected back in 2008, and the only thing that he has really ever accomplished is to push gun sales higher.”
Gun industry insiders tend to agree with the assessment that political sound bites may help drive sales, but also see a deeper meaning in the NICS tea leaves.
“The exceptional June numbers reflect, in part, a continued concern among gun owners over the possibility of gun control legislation moving forward which was reinforced by statements by Hillary Clinton and Sens. Machin and Toomey as well as President urging more gun control,” Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel told Guns.com Thursday.
“However, when you look at the overall increase in firearms ownership over time as reflected in the NSSF Adjusted NICS data what is clear is that the continued long term growth is driven by the changing demographics of gun owners.
“There is a growing, more diverse customer base,” said Keane.
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