NRA’s Wayne LaPierre – Dave Workman photo
By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
Gun sales are spiking, a new Rasmussen survey shows a majority of Americans think the gun policies of the National Rifle Association make the country safer, and an official with the National Shooting Sports Foundation says gun control will be front and center during the 2016 campaign season.
ABC News and other agencies have been reporting that in the wake of the San Bernardino attack, people have actually lined up at gun shops.
According to the ABC report, “The line was out the door at a San Bernardino, California, gun shop Sunday morning, just one mile down the road from the Inland Regional Center, where two armed shooters shot dozens of San Bernardino County employees.
“Several shoppers spoke to ABC News on their way into Turner’s Outdoorsman,” the report continued, including Ben Reynolds of Runyon Springs, who was there to purchase his first firearm. He told the reporter that the shooting last week “hit a little close to home…It can happen anywhere, and this just shows it.”
By no small coincidence, what Reynolds told ABC is reflective of a new Rasmussen/New York Daily News telephone survey revealing that 61 percent of American adults “at least somewhat agree with the statement, ‘The NRA supports gun policies that make all Americans safer.’ This includes 35% who Strongly Agree.”
Rasmussen Reports recalled that in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy, a majority of parents of school-aged children said they would feel safer with an armed security guard at school, which is exactly what NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre proposed at the time. Even then, more Americans still viewed the NRA favorably than those who didn’t like the organization.
There is no small amount of irony that in the years after that tragedy, many school districts in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies instituted policies that allowed armed security. Some schools even allowed teachers or administrators to be armed, reflecting LaPierre’s strategy without giving NRA any credit.
Rasmussen also noted that 51 percent of Americans “think more gun control is more likely to make it harder for law-abiding citizens to purchase a gun rather than keep guns out of the hands of criminals, people with mental illness and suspected terrorists.” That also reflects what NRA and other organizations including the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have maintained for years.
These poll results are bad news for the gun prohibition lobby. Rasmussen reported that 29 percent disagree with the majority, including 20 percent who “strongly disagree” while ten percent were “undecided.” This translates to the inability of the anti-gun left to muster even 30 percent toward their position, and clearly paints them as a minority.
Actually, public interest in buying guys and applying for carry licenses and permits began rising in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Paris, in mid-November. Concerns of terrorism seemed prescient with the buying that apparently occurred – based on NICS check applications – on black Friday and through the post-Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
NSSF reported in its weekly Bullet Points newsletter that November’s adjusted National Instant Check System figures amounted to an increase of 7.7 percent over November 2014.
NSSF vice president and general counsel Lawrence Keane said the spike in gun sales after San Bernardino was predictable. It follows a pattern established years ago that shows people buying guns and ammunition any time there is talk of gun control, which President Barack Obama did during his “reassurance” speech from the Oval Office.
Keane also pointed to the announcement by the Supreme Court that it will not review a case challenging a ban on so-called “assault weapons” with full capacity magazines in Highland Park, Illinois. That decision, which garnered a strong dissent from Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, will also boost sales of modern sporting rifles, he predicted.
Part of the fallout from the attack and the president’s response may be seen at the January Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas. That’s the largest firearms industry show in the world, and it was already on track to be the biggest ever, Keane noted. With the added threat of gun control, and a surge in buying, business could be brisk.
Add to that the threat of Hillary Rodham Clinton being almost a shoo-in for the Democrat nomination, and it appears to be the formula for promoting activism.
Keane told TGM that the foundation will be making efforts to inform and educate voters throughout 2016, right up to the election. Even moreso than during the 2000 contest between Al Gore and George Bush, gun control is going to be a major factor.
“We expect the NSSF political action committee to have a banner year,” Keane predicted.
