gun sales across America have dropped significantly since Election Day, according to FBI statistics, trade groups, gun shop owners, and corporate reports. The reasons are somewhat unclear, but many believe that the trend is due to eased fears of "having their guns taken away," as many believed that both Obama and Hillary Clinton intended to criminalize gun ownership. A Google search for "Obama gun" still pulls up a top story about a theoretical Obama administration gun ban.
That's hitting many gun store owners hard, as they stocked up on inventory before the election, anticipating a Clinton victory and a continued push for an assault weapon ban.
That, obviously, never materialized, and store owners are now overstocked in the middle of a slump. There is one area in which gun sales have actually increased, however: marginalized and minority Americans, especially LGBTQ+ people, have a renewed interest in gun ownership post-Trump.
Gun sales driven by fears of oppression are up.
Philip Smith, president of the National African American Gun Association, said that his organization has seen a significant uptick in new memberships in Trump's America. "Trump is some of that reason," he said, "and rhetoric from other groups that have been on the fringe. It’s like being racist is cool now."
Since Election Day, the NAAGA has added over 7,000 members, and new chapters are opening nationwide - and growing rapidly.
Stephen Yorkman the founder of a new Maryland chapter which already has 55 members, said that "people are scared and rightfully so."
'They feel better if they at least learn how to shoot a firearm or own one'
Marginalized people have reason to be worried. In the first month since Trump took office, seven transgender women, all women of color, have been murdered - four of them in a single week in late February.
Larry Keane, senior VP and general counsel of the Shooting Sports Foundation, a group which represents gun manufacturers, explicitly stated that a slump after the holidays is normal and that nobody expected 2016's unprecedented demand for guns to be sustainable. "Yes, we’re coming off the peaks in demand, but the valley floor is higher." He also noted that the gun industry is seeing spikes and valleys in demand based on political rhetoric, on both local and nation-wide levels.
The NRA's Wayne LaPierre even took the stage at CPAC. His message for the last eight years: Obama is coming for your guns, so you need to buy more. This year, his tone was a little different: "leftist terrorists ... [want] to kill you" - so you need to buy more guns.
Ok, maybe not all that different. Meanwhile, frightened minorities, somewhat ironically, continue to bolster flagging gun sales in the United States. And in a climate of increasingly-open hate and bigotry, that might not be such a bad idea.
