OPINION:
The greatest gun salesman in America would probably never own one. Anyone who travels with a squad of heavily armed security men doesn’t need one. As the most powerful man in the world, Barack Obama detests anything that empowers the individual, and this requires persuading his constituents they need not take responsibility for their own protection. By insisting there is peace where there is no peace, President Obama enables conflict to fester abroad, and now it has come home to American soil. He loathes the Second Amendment and gun sales are exploding.
The terrorist attack on San Bernardino in the heart of the nation’s largest state renders national security a personal issue for every American. With the collaboration of the American-born Syed Farook, his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik and the Islamic State, or ISIS, 14 Americans were slain at a Christmas party just as the president assured everyone that ISIS is “contained.” That changes everything.
Even before the massacre at San Bernardino, Americans were arming themselves at a quickening pace. On Black Friday, the FBI reported that it had conducted background checks on 185,345 Americans buying a gun, exceeding last year’s record number by more than 10,000. Gun sales have expanded throughout Mr. Obama’s term of office, reaching 18 million purchases a year — double the rate during George W. Bush’s tenure.
Mr. Obama’s incessant calls for more ways to prevent buying a gun are largely responsible. During his Oval Office address last Sunday, the president urged Congress to bar the 47,000 persons on the no-fly list from owning a gun. That would not have slowed down the San Bernardino killers even a trifle. They were never on the list. The trade in guns has been further spurred by Mr. Obama’s stubborn blindness to the spread of Islamic extremism abroad and the growing threat at home. Americans are deciding in record numbers that they have no choice but to arm themselves.
There’s a sea change in local official attitude toward citizens buying guns, as more sheriffs and police chiefs acknowledge they can’t be first on the scene of an attack. “Let there be no mistake — the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” says Wayne Ivey, the sheriff of Broward County, Florida. “If you’re a person who is legally licensed to carry a firearm, now is the time more than ever to realize that you, and you alone, may very well be the first line of defense for you and your family.”
With the call to arms, concealed carry classes are overflowing. “Packing heat” is not just for country cowboys any longer; suburbanites, both men and women, are signing up for classes. They’re apprehensive over arming themselves but consider it a civic and family duty. Concealed carry permits have nearly tripled nationwide since 2007 to more than 12.8 million. And no surprise, the murder rate has dropped by 25 percent, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center.
It’s difficult for Mr. Obama to concede that more guns equal fewer crimes. Harder still for the “peace president” to admit that his reluctance to protect Americans from enemies both foreign and domestic has led to a resurgence of citizen sentinels from sea to shining sea.
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