Atlanta Journal Constitution Blames Trump for Not Helping the Gun Industry Enough

June sales chart not yet released. May shows industry growth since 2000

A staff writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution blog has stretched the truth a considerable amount in saying that President Trump has been detrimental to the gun industry. From myajc.com:

President Donald Trump may yet rejuvenate coal mining or bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. But his election already seems to have been detrimental to at least one economic sector: the gun industry.

With the new president firmly aligned with gun-rights advocates, the FBI performed 9 percent fewer firearms background checks in the first half of this year compared to January through June 2016, according to newly released data.

In Georgia, the decrease was even greater. From January to June, the FBI performed about 269,000 background checks in Georgia – 11 percent fewer than the 302,000 it logged in the first half of 2016.

2016 was the highest year for background checks conducted by the FBI NICS (National Instant background Check System) ever.  2017 looks to be the second highest number of NICS ever. Through June, 2017, there were 12,601,102 NiCS checks. That is a little lower than 2016 for the same period. 2016 set records because of fears of Hillary Clinton being elected and passing legislation making it hard to buy and own guns.

In 2016, the first six months had 13,829,491 background checks. That was the all time record for the first half of a year. 2013 held the next highest number of background checks, when gun buyers feared that President Obama would pass restrictions on owning and selling guns. 2013 had 11,445,851  NICS checks in the first half of the year.

It is clear that 2017 gun sales were a bubble created by fear of Hillary Clinton. But instead of the bubble bursting, as people thought would happen with a Trump election, gun sales have only slowed down a little.

2016 was the hottest years for gun sales, ever. 2017 is on track to be the 2nd hottest. Stepping back a little from record sales is *not* bad for the firearms industry.

Any news can be twisted into "bad" news caused by President Trump. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is the gun industry group that most gun manufacturers belong to. It adjusts the NICS checks for gun sales, taking out the NICS done for carry permits or for permit rechecks. Their adjusted numbers show better news for the industry than the unadjusted NICS do. From thinkingafield.org:

The second quarter 2017 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 3,116,282 is a decrease of 2.0 percent over the 3,179,825 figure for second quarter 2016.

The adjusted NICS data were derived by subtracting out NICS purpose code permit checks and permit rechecks used by several states such as Connecticut, Illinois, and Utah for CCW permit application checks as well as checks on active CCW permit databases. NSSF started subtracting permit rechecks in February 2016.

According to the Industry group, the first half of 2017 is within 2% of the all time record for gun sales set in 2016.  That is not bad news. Six months that comes within 2 percent of the all time record for sales, is good news.


©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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