What's going on?
As Remington's then-CEO, Ted Torbeck, said in a 2009 conference call with investors, "demand…has risen amidst concerns that the new administration will further restrict the use or purchase of firearms and ammunition and levy additional taxes on these products."
And who increases those concerns to stoke demand? The NRA. Which gets more money from the gun lobby and members the more guns are sold. Even though President Obama hasn't done anything to control the sale of deadly firearms during his tenure, "the NRA's rhetoric reached a fever pitch this spring and summer, with the association warning in a fundraising letter that a second term for Obama would give him 'free rein to declare all-out war on our gun rights and rip the Second Amendment right out of our Bill of Rights.'"
Indeed, the gun industry faces an ever-present threat to its profits, but not from Obama or Democrats:
A gun that's taken care of should last a lifetime. Such a durable product can be a problem for the industry that makes it. That's why it's crucial not only to attract new customers, but to get gun owners to buy multiple guns. And that's where the twin fears of crime and confiscation—hyped by America's massive gun marketing complex—come in.
The gun industry needs political enemies and scare tactics to keep people buying multiple guns and hoards of ammo that they don't need. So it looks like, ironically, Democrats are their best friends.
There is no divorcing the politics of guns from their profits.
By Jarrett Murhpy
August 30, 2012 | AlterNet
No comments:
Post a Comment