Gun Dealers Should Love President Obama

If the gun dealers in the United States aren't big supporters of President Obama, then there has to be something wrong with their thought processes. Having an African-American in the White House has been a huge boost to gun sales in this country (thanks to the overt and latent racism of far too many Americans). Usually the election of a president (of either political party) doesn't have much effect on gun sales, but the election of President Obama is very different.

Adding to the racism factor is the propaganda put out by the National Rifle Association (NRA). Before, and right after, President Obama's first election, the NRA put out an enormous amount of propaganda about how President Obama was going to take guns away from law-abiding Americans. Of course, it didn't happen. The Obama administration has done nothing to restrict gun ownership -- even after the slaughters in Arizona and Colorado. The administration didn't even try to re-impose the ban on the sale of assault weapons.

And during the election campaign this year, the NRA ramped up that same propaganda again. This time they said now that Obama doesn't have to worry about re-election, he's going to go after gun owners. It doesn't matter that the president has said nothing about that, or that most congressional Democrats wouldn't go along with it if he did, or that the Republican-controlled House would kill any attempt at establishing new gun laws. Reality and facts don't matter much to the NRA and teabagger crowd. They are swayed much more by rumors and conspiracy theories.

So it shouldn't surprise any of us that gun sales set a new record on Black Friday last week. The FBI reports it received at least 155,000 requests from gun dealers for background checks on that one day. That's 20% more than it received on Black Friday a year ago. Now some of you may think that the record gun sales are driven by violent crime. But that excuse just doesn't wash, considering that violent crime has gone done for several years now.

No. It's that "scary black man" in the White House that's driving guns sales. I think if I was a gun dealer I would be trying to find a legal loophole to get a third term for Obama -- or find another African-American I could support for the presidency. Just imagine the spike in gun sales if an African-American was elected in 2016!