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Americans have been buying a lot of guns. The figure is in the tens of millions. It might be time to get one of the gas pump stickers of President Joe Biden saying, “I did that.”

After all, it is his failing policies that are driving many to take up lawful gun ownership. The Biden administration’s failure to address rampant crime, attacks on Second Amendment rights and weaponizing of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to become a political arm of gun control instead of a law enforcement and regulatory bureau has woken Americans of all walks of life that gun ownership is not only legal; it’s responsible.

Those within the firearm industry, and Americans concerned about their personal safety, are not surprised. Month after month, NSSF publishes an Adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System report that shows the number of FBI background checks associated with the sale of a firearm.

That figure has been over a million every month for the past 33 months.

New Report, Old Information

The New York TimesWall Street Journal and Axios trumpeted the publication of a new ATF report, that’s well… not really new information at all. ATF published the National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment. The report is a compilation of already-publicly available information that’s posted to the ATF’s website.

This report, conspicuously-timed just a week before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee considers President Biden’s nomination of Steve Dettelbach to become the next ATF Director, puts all that information that’s been hanging out there for the public to see in one easily-digestible 306-page report.

In other words, the Biden administration did the homework for the media to find all the firearm production and illegal trafficking reports in one place.

Steve Dettelbach
Steve Dettelbach (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The New York Times report noted that semiautomatic handguns have been the most popular-selling firearms since 2009. That’s hardly new information. NSSF has been explaining that handguns, typically purchased for personal and home defense, have accounted for more than half of firearm sales. That became even more obvious starting in April 2020, when there were 2.3 million background checks for the sale of a firearm, the most ever on record for a single month.

New Gun Owners

That gun-buying trend contributed to a record of over 21 million background checks for gun sales in 2020, followed in 2021 with over 18.5 million. It wasn’t just existing gun owners adding to their gun safes. Over 14 million first-time gun buyers purchased a gun in those two years, with significant increases of women, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans purchasing guns. Today’s gun owner is increasingly diverse, representing more of America because more Americans of all walks of life are buying guns.

Axios, a policy-centered news outlet widely read by Washington, D.C. lawmakers and their staffs, recognized this shift. That report cited a Gallup poll that showed rising crime was the leading concern among Americans.

The number one reason they’re buying guns is for personal safety. This recent gun-buying surge began in April 2020, which is also when COVID-19 lockdown orders began. That’s also when police warned they wouldn’t be able to respond to every 9-1-1 call because police departments were forced to pull officers off the beat over infection and violent criminals were released from jail due to COVID concerns.

Los Angeles george floyd protest riot police car
A person jumps on a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles, Saturday, May 30, 2020, during a protest over the death of George Floyd. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

The violence that followed in the summer of 2020, where cities across America witnessed riots, arson, looting and murders, propelled the gun buying, followed by election-season rhetoric from the Biden-Harris campaign of plans to enact far-reaching gun control plans.

Add in the embrace of “Defund the Police” policies by politicians, no-bail and soft-on-crime policies that turn criminals back out on the streets to commit more crimes and the continued gun control plans of the Biden administration, it doesn’t take a 306-page report to understand Americans are concerned for their safety and they’re taking action.

defund the police ap crop
(AP Photo/Matt York)

The violence never subsided. Racially motivated attacks continue, even to this day. Americans continue to purchase firearms. KTLA in Los Angeles just published a report speaking with African-Americans purchasing guns there for self-defense. Oni Powell explained to reporters, “We have to be diligent and we have to know that our safety is first and foremost.”

Criminals Being Criminal

The ATF’s report also shows, once again, that criminals aren’t obtaining firearms through legal sales. They’re obtaining them through theft and the illegal black market. That information, too, isn’t new. The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics report shows that convicted felons that committed their crimes with a firearm admitted they overwhelmingly obtained it illegally.

That’s another indicator that the Biden administration’s crackdown on the firearm industry is misguided. Administration officials blame “rogue gun dealers” for the crime spike when the reality is that criminals commit crimes. They don’t subject themselves to an FBI background check before they commit their crimes.

In the same report from The New York Times, it noted police recovered 19,344 privately manufactured firearms (PMFs), or so-called “ghost guns.” Emily Miller, a reporter covering firearms, noted in a tweet that cities, including Washington, D.C., Metro Police Department, have been including guns with obliterated serial numbers in their “ghost gun” recovery figures.

The reason firearm production is at record highs is simple market demand. More Americans are choosing to lawfully arm themselves to protect their loved ones. That demand was driven by runaway crime that the Biden administration refuses to seriously address.

Firearm manufacturers ramped up production to meet this demand. If the Biden administration wants to understand that in any simpler terms, NSSF can get him one of those “I did that!” stickers.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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27 COMMENTS

  1. I wonder if Obummer’s pissed that Slojoe took his crown? We also need to make new stickers with Trump’s likeness saying “miss me yet” to put next to the Slojoe stickers already on the pump!!

  2. I put a Biden “I did that” in my toilet just to get even with him for dumping the country into the toilet.

    It’s fair. A bit indelicate, but fair.

    • I bought several dozen of the now-famous “I Did That!” stickers at the beginning of 2022 and have been putting them on gas pumps every time I fill up. Especially fun when traveling between CA and NV and adding my contribution to the pumps along the way that already have some placed by others.

    • i remember asking maw why her grampa had dimes glued all around the toidy rim. i was too young to understand who fdr was.

  3. May have put one in the baby formula section of the supermarket. May also have observed a few laugh at it and one get huffy and try to rip it off. May need to repeat this a few times to get accurate behavioral data.

  4. On one hand the finger pointing fork tounge drama queen democRats are marching in lockstep denouncing “rampant racism” all based on the actions of a misguided teen whose mind was filled with what is their democRat Party Jim Crow era brain washing.

    On the other hand democRats are calling on Gun Control again which is the only agenda remaining in America that history confirms is rooted in racism and genocide.

    Frankly it is difficult to tell who is the most demented…The teen with a mind filled with Jim Crow demoCrap or the Jim Crow Gun Control democRat Party.

  5. I put one on my recent firearms received since he has been in office page of my records. Between him and the mostly peaceful arson activity my once anti gun wife has found some great firearms for my collection.

  6. joe burden is so good that pacifists and buddhist monks are buying guns.

    With support from herr dacian and mineriq he’s managed to arm nearly every home in America.

    • jwm,

      No, it isn’t even close to “nearly every home in America” . . . but I’m OK with that. Unless someone is willing to invest the time, effort and money into getting trained, I’m fine with them not buying guns. I just don’t think government defined/mandated training is the answer.

      But I’m all on board for more people buying guns – I figure a decent percentage of them will actually educate themselves, and the rest will put their gun in a drawer somewhere, where it will reside untouched until they die. (OK, a few will get stolen and used by gangbangers.)

  7. Never mind a sticker. We need to put Biden, and a few others, out of a job. It’s sad to say, but I’ll contribute to their retirement. A few dollars on the front end is a small price to pay.

      • Gadsden,

        Yeah, like Barry Soetoro and Jimmuh Carduh have “done no harm”. If you want them to “do no harm”, they need to be permanently retired. I think they are entitled to their idiot opinions, and I ignore them. What is it that opinions are like???

        But expecting “no harm” from ANY current or former politician is complete wishcasting.

    • In other words, by their own admission, they’re pushing white supremacy requirements! According to Democrats, black people can’t figure out how to get a state license. How are they supposed to get a DOJ license??

  8. Biden’s “crackdown on rogue FFLs” (read trying to put FFLs out of business) has nothing to with street criminals and their gun involved crimes ,violence and murders, but has everything to do with further hindering law abiding citizens from easy access to purchase firearms, and is yet another infringement on our 2nd A rights.
    FJB

  9. It wouldn’t surprise me if the “I did that” stickers weren’t made by a company that theBiden has stocks in.

  10. TRUTH , NO MATTER WHO IN OFFICE I BUY AS I WANT , MY INTEREST IN FIRE ARMS .
    WANTA SLAM~DUNK SOMEONE , KIM JUNKIE UN~ISM , PUTIN PUT UP IN PUTIN~ISM BUNGHOLE. O’ DON’T FORGET TRATIOR tttRUMP~ISM.

    • Wow, NTexas,

      You have now combined rudeness, failure to understand the CAPS LOCK, illiteracy, inability to write a coherent sentence or spell simple words with total babbling idiocy. Well done!!

      Go finish grammar school. Maybe someday you can aspire to a GED. (Like dacian the stupid has failed to achieve.)

  11. Well I would like to have a real BAR, I buy as I can afford, and I sure cant afford that.
    Trump was a traitor, How so?

  12. I prefer the Urkel voiced, “Did I do that?” Is it possible that the big oil companies are raising gasoline prices just to make Joe Biden look bad since democrats are typically anti-big business and pro taxing the hell out of them?

  13. We need to put HUGE I Did That stickers on every democrat and RINO up for election…..We need to tie their connection to Biden around their neck like a millstone

  14. That’s why I say we have no hope for change except by force. This country has been taken over by corrupt politicians for over 45 years. Everyone one that in government from the past 45 years has baggage. They all need to be put on trial and investigated.i do home work ….. 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤.𝐜𝐨𝐦

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