Obama is named gun ‘salesman of the year’

The Obama years have proved to be a boon to the nation’s gun industry, which has posted strong gains in jobs, sales, economic impact and taxes paid in the teeth of an economic downturn. The economic impact of the firearms and ammunition industry - a figure that includes jobs, taxes and sales - hit $31 billion in 2011, up from $19 billion in 2008, according to a survey released Thursday by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). Background check requests for firearms purchases set records in 2010 and 2011, according to FBI data. Jobs in the firearms business jumped 30 percent from 2008 to 2011, when the industry employed 98,750. The industry paid $2.5 billion in federal taxes in 2011, up 66 percent in three years. Some in the industry attribute the jump in sales in no small part to fears - fed in part by leading gun lobbies - that the Obama administration will tighten gun control laws if the president wins re-election...more