Barack Obama has been a boon for the gun industry, even though the president has done little to stoke gun-control fears.

Since Obama took office, Second Amendment advocates have warned the Democrat would become the “most anti-gun president in American history.”

But the reality is that Obama has not pushed for new gun control laws. And even if he did, such initiatives would be unlikely to go anywhere in the current Congress.

Nevertheless, gun sales are skyrocketing out of fear that Obama will somehow take away Americans’ right to bear arms. Since the gun industry’s warnings that Obama would restrict the right to bear arms have come to nothing, gun manufacturers now claim that he has a secret agenda to combat gun ownership that he will implement if he wins a second term.

Two of the biggest manufacturers of handguns, Sturm, Ruger & Co. and Smith & Wesson, are enjoying substantial jumps in sales. Purchases of Ruger-made weapons have gone up 86% since Obama became president, while Smith & Wesson’s sales have climbed nearly 44%. Overall, gun sales are up 18% nationwide.

“The driver is President Obama. He is the best thing that ever happened to the firearm industry,” Jim Barrett, an industry analyst at C.L. King & Associates Inc. in New York, told the Associated Press.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

US Gun Industry Is Thriving During Obama's Term (by Eileen Sullivan and Jack Gillum, Associated Press)

Why Does NRA Oppose Gun-Friendly Obama? (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)

Anti-Gun Violence Group Gives Obama an “F” (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)