Gun Sales Rise In Texas As NRA Spouts Anti-Obama Fantasies

Since taking office, President Obama has actually expanded gun owners’ rights — the most significant guns legislation he signed was a law allowing people to carry guns in national parks. Nevertheless, the chance that he could win a second term reportedly is pushing gun owners to stockpile guns. “People are terrified he’s going to get re-elected and then he won’t care about getting votes next time. He’ll just pass whatever legislation he wants,” DeWayne Irwin, owner of the Cheaper Than Dirt gun store in north Fort Worth, told Star-Telegram. Irwin’s store set a sales record in February.

In 2011, the FBI received more than 16.3 million inquires from people running background checks on potential gun purchasers. That’s up from 11.4 million in 2007. Over four years, more than 1 million of those requests have come from Texas, the second most in the nation behind Kentucky. And while the number of gun owners grows, gun sellers are seeing fear of an administration crackdown:

“I’m constantly getting questions from people in the gun community about this [issue],” said Alan Korwin, author of nine gun law books, including Gun Laws of America, and operator of gunlaws.com. “People are concerned that if Obama wins, as a lame duck, he will go after firearms in a way we have never seen before.

“We saw a fire sale when he was elected last time,” he said. “But the speculation is that now … with his need to get re-elected gone, the sky is the limit on attacking the Second Amendment.” [...]

A prominent businessman recently shopped at Cheaper Than Dirt, saying that “Republicans don’t have a prayer against Obama” this year. That man, Irwin said, spent $25,000 on ammunition, magazines and other gun paraphernalia.

“The folks paying attention to the political climate think this might be an opportunity to stock up,” Irwin said.

This gun rush is no doubt influenced by fantasies being spread by the nation’s leading gun group. National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, recently claimed that Obama would eliminate the Second Amendment — and guns owners’ rights — if he is re-elected. “All that first term, lip service to gun owners is just part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term,” he said at the Conservative Poliltical Action Conference last month. Once he does not have another election to worry about, LaPierre told conservatives that Obama would “get busy dismantling and destroying our firearms’ freedom.”