NRA’s Latest Spin: Americans Buying Guns Because They “Fear Obama”

Of course, NRA President David Keene didn’t discuss the origin of those fears, namely the NRA and paranoia-promoting right wing media, during his appearance on CNN’s State of the Union earlier today:

Gun sales skyrocketed at the end of 2012 after the tragic shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. The FBI conductedmore than 2 million criminal background checks ahead of gun purchases in December, according to the National Sports Shooting Association, representing a 58.6 percent increase over December 2011.

The National Rifle Association usually encourages Americans to purchase guns in the aftermath of an attack by spreading rumors of Democrats’ supposed efforts to restrict gun ownership. For instance, the NRA’s CEO and executive vice president Wayne LaPierre once warned that Obama would confiscate “our firearms” and undermine America’s greatness. But on CNN’s State Of The Union Sunday, NRA President David Keene dismissed charges that the organization’s fearmongering is responsible for the spike in sales fand instead blamed President Obama and gun safety proponent Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA):

CANDY CROWLEY (HOST): The accusation is that you are ginning up this conversation because it helps gun sales.

KEENE: The two people who are selling so-called assault rifles are Sen. Feinstein and President Obama, not us. They’re the ones that are scaring American gun owners. It isn’t the NRA.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.