View the Ammo Shortage from the Left

[Waitone]

Here is a view of the much ballyhooed ammo shortage as seen from the left end of the political spectrum.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/rights/142934/scary%3A_bullet_makers_can%27t_keep_up_with_demand

So here's a disconcerting little headline. From the Associated Press (via the Houston Chronicle): Bullet makers can't keep up with demand

    Bullet-makers are working around the clock, seven days a week, and still can’t keep up with the nation’s demand for ammunition.

    Shooting ranges, gun dealers and bullet manufacturers say they have never seen such shortages. Bullets, especially for handguns, have been scarce for months because gun enthusiasts are stocking up on ammo, in part because they fear President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress will pass antigun legislation -- even though nothing specific has been proposed and the president last month signed a law allowing people to carry loaded guns in national parks.

According to the article, "gun sales spiked when it became clear Obama would be elected a year ago and purchases continued to rise in his first few months of office. The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System reported that 6.1 million background checks for gun sales were issued from January to May, an increase of 25.6 percent from the same period the year before."

This is only the latest news report showing a rise in demand for guns and ammo since Obama took office. But the president didn't accomplish this on his own; a good deal of credit goes to the gun lobby, which has always relied on fearmongering and paranoia as critical parts of its strategic arsenal. In its propaganda campaign in the run-up to the 2008 election, the NRA portrayed Obama as the most anti-gun candidate in the history of the republic.

"Never in NRA's history have we faced a presidential candidate ... with such a deep-rooted hatred of firearm freedoms," read a letter sent out last August. The mailing purported to lay out "Obama's Ten Point Plan to 'Change' The Second Amendment," despite the fact that the "points" did not match Obama's campaign positions on guns. One of them was a ridiculous claim charging that Obama plans to "close 90 percent of the gun shops in America."

So perhaps it's no surprise that gun enthusiasts are behaving like colonists under siege. "I call it the Obama effect," one Louisiana gun dealer said, adding, “It always happens when the Democrats get in office."

But more than one dealer described the current situation as unprecedented.

    "We are working overtime and still can’t keep up with the demand,” said Al Russo, spokesman for North Carolina-based Remington Arms Company, which makes bullets for rifles, handguns and shotguns. “We’ve had to add a fourth shift and go 24-7. It’s a phenomenon that I have not seen before in my 30 years in the business.”

It's hard not to be alarmed by such statements given the collective, apoplectic rage that has been directed at Obama -- and anyone perceived to support his policies --  not to mention the well-publicized tea-baggers who have shown up at rallies packing heat. Yet Congress seems to be too firmly in the grip of the gun lobby to waste much time worrying about this. Just this month, the Senate voted to force Amtrak to allow its passengers "to carry unloaded and locked handguns in checked baggage, even though Amtrak officials had raised concerns that the proposal could present 'numerous challenges,'" according to the New York Times. Under the legislation, "Amtrak would lose the funds earmarked for it in the must-pass spending bill if it did not comply with the new regulations."

The Houston Chronicle has more.

[Standing Wolf]

So perhaps it's no surprise that gun enthusiasts are behaving like colonists under siege.

The nation is, indeed, under seige from the Marxists. Most of them, like cockroaches, are inside rather than ouside the walls.

[MechAg94]

They try to blame this on the gun lobby.  I don't think gun guys need the gun lobby to tell them a lot of Democrats don't like gun ownership.  Some people have memories that go back more than 2 years.

The mailing purported to lay out "Obama's Ten Point Plan to 'Change' The Second Amendment," despite the fact that the "points" did not match Obama's campaign positions on guns.

I also like this sentence.  I find it amusing that they say this when his campaign website was caught a few times changing stuff that was politically embarrassing or brought too many questions. 

[longeyes]

The gun lobby?  Do they mean the Constitution lobby?  Or the Liberty lobby?

This is not about a business or even a tool, and the Left knows it.

I suggest we refer to the Left's "oppression lobby."

[longeyes]

It is interesting that the Left wants to suggest that American gun owners are in the thrall of some kind of cabal, aka "the gun lobby."  No, there is no mesmeric intellectual junta making rational Americans recognize that without the power of self-defense you cannot have political freedom.  If there's a cabal in America it's on the Left.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I suggest we refer to the Left's "oppression lobby."

I like it.

[sanglant]

i prefer the term hypocrite lobby

[longeyes]

They're not mutually exclusive, oppression and hypocrisy.

As far as the Left's concerned those who support the Constitution and Bill of Rights are a mean-spirited "special interest group."

[MicroBalrog]

I suggest we refer to the Left's "oppression lobby."

But longeyes, we are not being oppressed.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Help, help!  I'm being oppressed!

[longeyes]

There's soft oppression just as there's soft tyranny.  Obviously, we've had it good compared to just about anywhere else.  The "delta" is worrisome, though.

[MicroBalrog]

Don't worry, citizen. The System is in place for your own protection. Move along. Clearly, it's not as bad as the world's dictatorships, so you are actually free. Move along. Pay no attention to any minor, and absolutely necessary, exemptions to your Constitutional protection. Move along. You are not being oppressed.

[Perd Hapley]

They're not mutually exclusive, oppression and hypocrisy.

As far as the Left's concerned those who support the Constitution and Bill of Rights are a mean-spirited "special interest group."

Very well said.  Let us all remember that "special interest" is just a pejorative. 

[Lee]

The really sad part is that the hacks who write this junk, really think they have an understanding of gun issues.  Thankfully, they don't write technical manuals and such.  How difficult is it to look at Obama's record on gun rights...or even the status of gun rights in Illinois, and particularly in Chicago. I'd be the first to admit that the NRA sometimes whips up a frenzy (mostly ensure their own financial future), but in this case, it wasn't based on speculation.
 

[Antibubba]

As long as they're foaming at the mouth, I'm happy. 

[Tuco]

Bullets.

"I need to buy a box of 25 bullets to shoot a round of skeet."

Bullets.

[SADShooter]

Ignorance really is bliss if you're the ignoramus. If you're listening to/reading the ignoramus, it can be a special torture.