We’ve all seen the jokes about how Obama is “salesman” of the year for most gun shops in the country. We’ve seen the consistent reports about high gun sales since mid-2008. We’ve felt our wallets grow lighter due to higher prices caused by this short supply. The ammo shelves, while not bare anymore, hasn’t exactly been flush in the last few years. Primers? Heh, good luck because reloading didn’t even save folks from the surge in demand.
But how is this for perspective: All of the top 10 months for NICs checks – save two – have been since it became obvious that Obama would win the election.
November 2008 1,529,635
- Notable Event: Obama Election
December 2008 1,523,426
- Notable Event: More of the nation realizing the new president’s buddies are former terrorists.
December 2009 1,407,155
- Notable Event: It’s Christmas & Obama is still president.
March 2009 1,345,096
- Notable Event: Eric Holder announces renewed push for gun bans.
March 2010 1,300,100
- Notable Event: Pelosi announces she no longer expects to hold actual “votes” in Congress anymore.
February 2009 1,259,078
- Notable Event: January’s paycheck went to pay off all of the holiday gift bills. Holiday gifts included many guns & stockings full of ammo, as shown by the 2nd highest NICS month.
December 2006 1,253,840
- Notable Event: Democrats take back the House of Representatives & Nancy Pelosi is announced as Speaker-elect in the weeks after the election.
December 1999 1,253,354
- Notable Event: I have absolutely no idea. The only thing I can figure out is that it was about this time that media attention was shifting to Al Gore’s candidacy and the start of the Democratic primaries. (I don’t remember December of 1999 too well. I was in college & I had mono that month. I drank until finals, crammed until I flew home, and then slept for the rest of the month.)
February 2010 1,243,211
- Notable Event: Obama is still president, and he really starts to twist the arms on health care. Many to start to wonder what is next on his agenda.
October 2009 1,233,982
- Notable Event: Obama is still president.
Thanks to NSSF for this data. Â I love random facts. Â If any of you can think of other notable events in these months (or in the few days before the month) that might have influenced sales, feel free to add them in the comments.
December 1999 was the last month before the dreaded Y2K.
You need to go back BEFORE the election. As it is these numbers show that Obama caused a drop in gun sales by about 50k/month. Show the run up to the elections.
“Notable Event: I have absolutely no idea.”
The world was going to end when all the computers crashed at midnight on 12/31.
There was no ammo on the shelves at our shop by 12/31 that year in any service caliber. No buckshot or slugs, either.
Dear lord, I completely forgot about the non-event of Y2K. I guess it worked out for me that I doubted the hype.
Also, Freiheit, apparently you missed that this is a top 10 list. If you want to go analyze every single month of NICS for your fun and pleasure, feel free. I wanted to post about the top 10 because that’s the data (plus a little more) that I have.
Bitter – You’re right. I was reading the numbers waiting for a build to complete. I thought they were in chronological order. Reader error on my part! :D
December 1999? The Army approved my retirement, and extended me in Korea until the effective date. I think Mrs. Drang bought all the ammo that month…
Bitter, it always annoys me when Y2k is branded as “hype”.
I (and a LOT of other computer professionals around the world) spent many long days making sure that there was minimal impact from what was a serious issue.
Sure, the news media exaggerated the likely problems, but when all the shouting was over, Y2K was a pretty good example of a problem that was recognised, addressed, and resolved BEFORE it caused major issues. That’s the way ALL problems should be handled.
There, I feel better now.
Why no linkies to source data?
Because I had the data as a file. I didn’t want a ton of people downloading it or linking directly to it on our bandwidth.