Reflections From a Murky Pond

It’s perfectly fair to say that Obama has not been a boon to America’s economy. Nothing he’s done and nothing that he’s championed has improved the nation’s economic situation as a whole.

In point of fact, much of what Obama has either done or shilled for via the bully pulpit has had a chilling effect upon America’s economy.

There has been one significant uptick though, one segment of the economy that has responded positively to the Obama regime. Nationwide, firearms and ammunition sales have soared since Obama was installed as POTUS and that recovery shows no signs of slowing.

Obama’s Economic Boom

Indeed, 2011 Christmas firearm sales were record breaking, and the previous records weren’t that old.

With a few days left in December, the FBI reports the number of background checks has already topped the previous one-month record — set only in November — of 1,534,414 inquiries by gun dealers to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System also known as NICS. Almost half a million checks were done in just the last six days before Christmas.

Two days before Christmas, NICS ran 102,222 background checks, which was the second-busiest day in history. The one-day record was set this year on Black Friday, the big shopping day following Thanksgiving, with 129,166 searches. By comparison, the previous one-day high was set November 28, 2008, when gun dealers made slightly less than 98,000 requests for background searches.

In a larger context, the record for firearm purchases in a single year was set 2010, when the FBI reported that approximately 14.4 million background checks were requested. In 2011 that figure topped 16 million, an estimated 10% jump sales.

NOTE: FBI background searches aren’t the same thing as firearms sales. They can’t be used to accurately track multiple firearm purchases by the same individuals at the same time – i.e., if I buy 10 AR-15′s, 2 Mossberg 500′s, and a HK USP45 (w/o suppressor) as one purchase it would generate only one FBI background search.

So it seems that Obama’s economic boom is vastly ironic and probably not one that he’s comfortable with.

Related Reading:

A not-so-gentle reminder of one of life’s fundamental truths…

Freedom Is Assured Through Arms & The Willingness To Employ Them

It is important for Americans to remember that our freedoms are only maintained through force and the threat of force.

No politician and no governing body made up of them can ever be long trusted to work in the best interest of we, the People unless they live and work under the implied threat of harm to them and their kin and no threat is meaningful or credible unless they are convinced of our conviction and determination to do that harm and to carry it out with extreme prejudice as no mercy or restraint.

This is not a pleasant truth but it is a truth. All that ever changes is how direct and how widespread the threat has to be in order to keep the enemies at bay and/or under our control.

Related Reading:

Any discussion of gun control is fraught with controversy, angst, and outrage rage; that’s just the way it is in American society where Liberals have consistently tried to disarm the law abiding gun owners while decrying sterner punishments for illegal purchase, ownership, or use of firearms.

Reasonable minds, however, understand that there is room for debate and even compromise.

For example, requiring backgrounds checks for all firearm purchases and closing the “gun show loophole.” This is reasonable and can, with a little due diligence, be accomplished without trampling the Constitutional Rights enumerated in the 2nd Amendment and protected by the exercise of the same.

I’d be all in favor of this if the following preconditions were met:

1. Multi-State background check databases were made easily accessible and commercially viable portable checking “kiosks” were developed so that the requirement for a background check didn’t de facto constitute a Prior Restraint on American’s right to keep arms.
2. The exact same requirement and methodology for background checks is implemented by law at the polls for every election or referendum ballot.

The above are just simple compromises and pragmatic preconditions necessary to ensure that reasonable protective measures are emplaced on two perilous activities that Americans regularly undertake, purchasing firearms and exercising their franchise.

It seems to me that there’s little, if any, room for rational complaint about making sure the same provisions that cover firearm purchases also cover voting in elections or referendum ballots.

If the requirement for a background check is not a Prior Restraint upon American’s 2nd Amendment right then it obviously isn’t an illegal imposition on American’s privilege of voting.

Similarly, the rationale for such background checks is essentially the same for both firearms and voting. Society has long ago decided and codified into law that felons and the mentally infirm should be denied the ability to do either because either action entails significant dangers to society when undertaken by these individuals.

It’s a simple compromise that has the elegance of solving two problems with a single methodology, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing costs to all. It also has the key benefit of having checks and balances built into it since any changes to the system or procedures that might negatively impact either firearm purchases or voting would similarly affect the other.

Firearms and franchise – the more people understand the similarities between the two, the greater chance there is of a reasonable and rational set of laws regarding either or both.

Related Reading: