OPINION:
President Obama’s second-term effort to get Americans to hate guns has backfired. Not only did firearm sales in 2013 blow out all records, interest in learning more about Second Amendment issues has risen dramatically.
This is evidenced by the news that circulation for the magazine “American Rifleman” has broken into the top 25 magazines in the country, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.
The magazine, which is published by the National Rifle Association (NRA), surged 29 percent to 2.2 million readers in the second half of 2013 over the same period the previous year.
At the same time, circulation for all magazines was down 2 percent during that time frame. (The NRA publication took the place of the racy men’s magazine “Maxim” which fell from 2.5 million to 2 million subscribers.)
NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told me, “The jump in circulation is reflective of the increase in our membership, gun owners and the growing interest in firearms all across the country.”
There was a massive increase in NRA membership last year from 4 million to 5 million that mirrored Mr. Obama’s second-term gun grab.
SEE ALSO: NRA-New York doubles membership in face of new gun laws
The magazine is one of three publications (“American Hunter” and “America’s First Freedom”) that members can choose when signing up for the pro-Second Amendment organization.
“American Rifleman” reviews firearms and covers shooting events. One of the most popular features is the “Armed Citizen” that chronicles reports of regular citizens using firearms in self defense.
(Note to CNN’s Piers Morgan: This is the source for a sampling of the millions of times guns are used for defense every year that you told me never happens. Click here to watch that video.)
The president has used his executive powers over 20 times in the last year to infringe on Second Amendment rights. He believed that the public would go along with it.
Instead, he has encouraged a whole new section of the population — younger, more urban, increasingly female — to buy a gun for the first time. These people, in turn, became interested in defending their God-given right to self defense.
We are a nation built on the belief that an armed citizenry prevents a tyrannical government. So the new NRA members and readers of “American Rifleman” are telling the Mr. Obama that they will not be disarmed.
Emily Miller is senior editor of opinion for The Washington Times and author of “Emily Gets Her Gun” (Regnery, 2013).
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