Obama Gun Control Push Backfires as Industry Sees Unprecedented Surge
Photo Credit: Washington Times
The 2013 surge — the latest for which the government has figures — came in the first full year after the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, signaling that the push for stricter gun controls, strongly backed by President Obama, did little to chill the industry despite the passage of stricter laws in states such as New York, Maryland, Connecticut and California.
Indeed, interest in guns appears to be at an all-time high in California, which shattered its previous record for gun-purchase background checks last month, with nearly 200,000 processed, suggesting a vibrant firearms market in the country’s most populous state.
Industry backers say they aren’t surprised firearms buyers and manufacturers alike have responded to the national gun control debate by making and purchasing more.
“The surge in firearms sales in 2013 reflects both a long-term upward trend in shooting sports participation and [a] particular concern that year that law-abiding gun owners and those interested in purchasing a firearm for the first time could face tougher restrictions affecting access to and selection of firearms,” said Mike Bazinet, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry group. (Read more from “Obama Gun Control Push Backfires as Industry Sees Unprecedented Surge” HERE)
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Wal-Mart’s Right to Sell Guns at Risk in Lawsuit
By Kellan Howell. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest gun retailer, is awaiting a verdict Wednesday to see whether it can continue to sell modern sporting rifles if enough investors think it’s a business the company shouldn’t be in.
Arguing that Wal-Mart’s willingness to sell high-capacity magazine rifles contradicts its promise to uphold community and family values, Trinity Wall Street Church in New York won its case in November, when the district court ruled shareholders could propose and vote on a resolution that would force Wal-Mart’s board of directors to review its gun sales policy.
Gun rights activists argue that the district court’s decision allows the church, which owns 3,500 Wal-Mart shares, and other political activists to push gun control via corporate policies rather than struggle to pass such laws in the electoral arena.
“Implications of the decision are already being felt in a wide variety of areas, like shareholders who want companies to divest in Israel or shareholders who wanted, prior to a few days ago, to invest in Indiana,” said Michael Hammond, legislative counsel for Gun Owners of America. “It’s sort of an ongoing effort by people who have been unable to use the political process to achieve political ends and are now trying to destroy corporations in order to achieve those political ends.”
Wal-Mart is worried that the court’s decision will give investors power to protest any of the items sold in Wal-Mart stores across the country. (Read more from this story HERE)
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