By Lloyd Graff
With the machining community so riddled with woe at the moment, the guns and ammo boomlet is manna from heaven.
It’s a great time to be in the gun business. The buzz on the Web is that Barack Obama is going to push for a ban on assault riffles, something households need more than refrigerators.
Evidently, Obama’s campaign reference, that “bitter” small-town Americans “cling to guns or religion,” has fueled a tremendous surge in gun and ammo sales. People are buying AR-15s, the civilian version of the M-16 military rifle, like 42” HD televisions. At $1000 a pop (sorry) they are pumping out of the gun shops and gun shows. Wal-Mart is struggling to keep ammunition in stock because the NRA is implying that a big tax will soon be coming on each ammo box.
The high profile mass murders in Binghamton, N.Y. and Pittsburg are reinforcing a sense of insecurity, even panic, while right wing commentators foment unease as the economy slides.
But the gun run is a great boon to the Swiss CNC business as manufacturers rush to cash in on the gun bubble. While hunting rifles are currently dead, hand guns are the new Rolexes as folks look to show off their fancy shooting hardware.
It is still quite doubtful that Obama is going to risk his political capital in a quixotic joust with the gun lobbies. But the power of fear, for the moment, trumps rationality.