Chart by David Scott
We do not know precisely how many private guns were added the stock in the United States under President G. W. Bush compared to those added under President Barack Obama. We will not know the precise number until a year from now, when the BATFE releases the information. But we have a pretty good substitute. The number of National Instant Background Check System checks, or NICS, is highly correlated to the number of private guns sold.
I have been writing about NICS and the correlation with gun sales for a while. The numbers that were found in an article that compared the number of NICS under Bush to those under Obama were surprising. From mrctv.org:
According to data from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, widely considered to be the best metric in measuring firearms purchases in the United States, gun sales soared 60 percent under Obama's eight year stint in office compared to the number of firearms sold during President George W. Bush’s two-term presidency.I could not find a way to torture the data to come up with the 60% figure that was quoted by mrctv. Look at the numbers comparing the two eight year presidencies. If you consider the years 2001-2008 as the years of the Bush administration, there were 77,410,008 background checks under the National Instant Check System.
I realize that much of the buying in 2008 was in anticipation of the Obama administration, but to be scrupulous, President Bush was still in office. For a clean comparison, I chose 2001-2008 for Bush, and 2009-2016 for Obama. Total NICS from 2009 through 2016 were 157,233,157. That is a 103% increase during the Obama years.
The error is shown later in the article. The author says there were 94.8 million background checks during the Bush years, ending in 2008.
I can see how that error was made. You have to include all the background checks made before President Bush was in office in his totals. Include all the numbers from 1998-2008, instead of his actual 8 years in office, 2001-2008. With with an extra two years and two months in Bush's figures, you can say that the numbers of NICS under President Obama only increased 60%.
In the real world, the number of NICS under President Obama more than doubled the number of NICS under President Bush. It is quite an achievement, one that President Obama can be proud of.
©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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It has been said that Obamas policies while in office have made him the greatest gun sales man in history. the problem is GW bush will always be a piker. I am a republican and would like to give GW bush credit for something positive but I just cant find any thing worthy of praise. As far as Obama is concerned all I can say is I am so damn glad that asshole is now ex president. I was just getting aware of politics when Eisenhower was leaving office. I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the news of JFK's death. I have lived through a lot of important history with good and bad presidents. sadly most of them have not been good. I do not agree with every thing Trump is doing but he has offered the best hope for this country in decades and I hope enough people wake up and realize just what the difference is. I could care less how many pussy's he has or has not grabbed. So far he has kept more campaign promises in his first week than the rest have for decade did during their entire terms. If any one needs something to complain about try working on the trash in congress. Try working against all of those working on destroying the moral turpitude of this nation. If we get some of these major problems solved maybe we wont need to use all of those guns. If civil war ever breaks out in this country I know exactly where my ammo is going to get used. everyone that hates our constitution is free to leave while they still can. If you have no desire to be 100% American no matter what gender, color or race you are, now would be a good time to leave. take your lack of Christian values and get.
The purpose of a permit or a license is to make something legal that would otherwise be illegal. exercising a right had never been illegal in this country. a bribe is a bribe call it a permit or a license if you like it is money for access. NICS is unconstitutional because it makes information available to any one that has access and that information is a violation of the fourth amendment right to privacy.
There is an old saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend. believe that if you like but I have my saying if you are not my friend you are my enemy and I can shoot in more that one direction at s time.
For decades we have been told who our enemies are by those creating the enemies for profit. Prove he is a real enemy first then let me shoot him. If not shoot the one that created that false enemy for profit. the people making money off of wars should be placed in the center of the battle field. give them a whistle to blow when they want the shooting to start.
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