There are, in fact, not many things for which the outlook is promising. Exceptions include Smith&Wesson.
In the first two months of this year, around 2.5 million Americansbought guns, a 26 percent increase over the same period in 2008. It wasgreat news for gun makers and a sign of a dark mood in the country.
Gun sales shot up almost immediately after Barack Obama won the U.S.presidential elections on November 4 and firearm enthusiasts rushed tostores, fearing he would tighten gun controls despite campaign pledgesto the contrary.
After the November spike, gun dealers say, a second motive hashelped drive sales: fear of social unrest as the ailing economy pushesthe newly destitute deeper into misery. Many of the newly poor comefrom the relentlessly rising ranks of the unemployed. In Februaryalone, an average of 23,000 people a day lost their jobs.
Tent cities for the homeless have expanded outside a string ofAmerican cities, from Sacramento and Phoenix to Atlanta and Seattle,for people who are living the American dream in reverse. First theylose their jobs, then their health insurance, then their homes, thentheir hopes. The encampments are reminiscent of Third World refugeecamps.
Often former members of the middle class, tent dwellers’ accounts oftheir plight to television cameras have a common theme: “I neverthought this could happen to me.” Unlike the victims of Katrina, the2005 hurricane that destroyed much of New Orleans, many of thenewly-poor are white.
The FBI says it carried out 1,213,885 criminal background checks onprospective firearms buyers in January and 1,259,078 in February, jumpsof 28% and 23.3% respectively. Keen demand turned the stocks ofpublicly-trade firearms companies like Smith & Wesson (up 80% sinceNovember) and Sturm Ruger (up more than 100%) into shining stars on theNew York Stock Exchange.
There are no statistics on how many guns are bought by people whothink they need them to defend themselves against desperate fellowcitizens.