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US gun production doubled under Obama: Report

Under President Obama, gun production increased by 140 percent, reaching 10.8 million firearms in 2013.

Gun production in the United States has more than doubled under the administration of President Barack Obama, a new report says.

The report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives comes as Obama has tried to expand background checks and impose new restrictions on guns following massive shootings like the ones in Charleston, S.C. and in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. in 2012.

“The ATF report confirms what we already know, that Barack Obama deserves the 'Gun Salesman of the Decade' award,” said Erich Pratt, spokesman for the Gun Owners of America. "People have been rushing to buy firearms because they’re afraid that Obama will take away their Second Amendment rights.”

Some believe that the increase in the number of gun owners is indicative of the fact that they are concerned about new restrictions on their Second Amendment rights.

However, gun safety advocates say there is “no correlation” between the rise in firearms sales and Obama’s gun policies.

The gun industry is using a “scare tactic” to increase gun sales, said Mark Prentice, spokesman for Americans for Responsible Solutions, which is the gun safety group run by former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived a 2011 mass shooting in Tucson.

“The gun lobby seizes on those fears and uses scare tactics and doomsday rhetoric in order to sell more guns,” Prentice noted.

During the Clinton administration, the rate of gun production decreased by 9 percent, while it increased by 18 percent under the George W. Bush administration.

Under President Obama, however, gun production soared 140 percent, reaching 10.8 million firearms in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available.

Over 6,000 people have been killed and over 13,000 people have been injured by gun in the United States since January 1, 2015, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

About 4.5 million firearms are sold annually in the country at a cost of 2 to 3 billion dollars.

 


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