President Barack Obama is the best friend gun dealers have had in a long time.
Thanks to widespread paranoia among Second Amendment fanatics, gun and ammo sales are booming. A story in Monday's Herald reported that local customers are loading up on all sorts of lethal hardware.
Firearms and ammunition are flying off the shelves at area gun shops, hunting supply stores and pawn shops. Shooting instruction classes are filling up fast, and some now have waiting lists. The number of area residents getting concealed weapons permits also has risen sharply.
The price of ammo has skyrocketed, but so have sales, as gun owners stockpile bullets. Even the York County Sheriff's Office, which buys ammunition in bulk, is feeling the pinch.
In other words, these are golden days for anyone dealing in firearms, ammunition and the various accouterments that go with them. Even in the worst recession since the Great Depression, the gun business apparently is … bulletproof.
In fact, the recession itself may play a role in that. Many people fear that crime, in general, and the threat of home invasion, in particular, will increase during hard times, and they want to be well fortified.
But Obama's election also has been a big factor. For some reason, the new president seems to embody the fear that big, bad government is going to try to take our guns away.
This is a perpetual fear, no matter who is in office. But Obama's election seems to have ramped it up several of notches.
To read the complete column, visit www.heraldonline.com.