Of Arms and the Law

Navigation
About Me
Contact Me
Archives
XML Feed
Home


Law Review Articles
Firearm Owner's Protection Act
Armed Citizens, Citizen Armies
2nd Amendment & Historiography
The Lecture Notes of St. George Tucker
Original Popular Understanding of the 14th Amendment
Originalism and its Tools


2nd Amendment Discussions

1982 Senate Judiciary Comm. Report
2004 Dept of Justice Report
US v. Emerson (5th Cir. 2001)

Click here to join the NRA (or renew your membership) online! Special discount: annual membership $25 (reg. $35) for a great magazine and benefits.

Recommended Websites
Ammo.com, deals on ammunition
Scopesfield: rifle scope guide
Ohioans for Concealed Carry
Clean Up ATF (heartburn for headquarters)
Concealed Carry Today
Knives Infinity, blades of all types
Buckeye Firearms Association
NFA Owners' Association
Leatherman Multi-tools And Knives
The Nuge Board
Dave Kopel
Steve Halbrook
Gunblog community
Dave Hardy
Bardwell's NFA Page
2nd Amendment Documentary
Clayton Cramer
Constitutional Classics
Law Reviews
NRA news online
Sporting Outdoors blog
Blogroll
Instapundit
Upland Feathers
Instapunk
Volokh Conspiracy
Alphecca
Gun Rights
Gun Trust Lawyer NFA blog
The Big Bore Chronicles
Good for the Country
Knife Rights.org
Geeks with Guns
Hugh Hewitt
How Appealing
Moorewatch
Moorelies
The Price of Liberty
Search
Email Subscription
Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

 

Credits
Powered by Movable Type 6.8.7
Site Design by Sekimori

« 65 Demo Congressmen write AG Holder... | Main | Comment on 14th Amendment cases »

Eugene Volokh on the increase in gun sales

Posted by David Hardy · 18 March 2009 03:36 PM

He does an interesting month-by-month breakdown over several years and concludes that Obama's election and subsequent events are the most likely cause. Compared to the previous year, sales increased 3% in September, 15% in October, and 42% in November, and stayed high since.

5 Comments | Leave a comment

doug in colorado | March 18, 2009 7:24 PM | Reply

Uh...how long did it take you to figure this out, Eugene? All you had to do was go to a gun shop on 5 or 6 November and ask "What are you doing here?" to get the facts in this case.


Carl in Chicago | March 19, 2009 5:51 AM | Reply

Doug, with all due respect, your comment is snide. I realize you might be joking but it's difficult to tell.

At some level you are correct. And I've also confirmed it with anecdotal evidence ... I usually ask folks at shops or shows why they are buying (they usually include Obama in the answer).

But the bottom line is that your method of inquiry is anectotal, while Eugene's relies on quantification (ie. it's scientific). Many people claim to know "facts" about various things, but when you press them as to how they know what they know ... they usually cannot provide solid evidence.

Gene Volokh does. Perhaps that's why his work is cited by federal courts, including the Supreme Court.

Dan Hamilton | March 19, 2009 9:49 AM | Reply

Carl, I am sorry but you are wrong. The only thing Gene Volokh showed was that firearms sales increased close to and after the election. Nothing else. He proposes that the increase is because Obama got elected but that proves nothing. Correlation is not causation.

Every one should know that gun sales are up. Volokh gave numbers to show that yes gun sales are up. But again he only shows NIC checks. Each NIC's check doesn't mean "A" gun sale. Either zero or more then one gun can be bought with 1 NIC's Check. Also many States (I believe do as Texas does)don't require a NIC's check for people with a Concealed Carry Licence. So the real number of guns sold may be and certain;ly is MUCH Higher.

I have seen bumper stickers at Gun Show that say "Obama #1 Gun Salesman". When EVERYONE is saying the same thing and NO ONE is saying anything else it stops being anecdotal evidence.
Saying Dave down at Ben's Pawn and Gun says Obama is the cause is anecdotal. Saying at 10 gun stores and 3+ large Gun Shows Obama being the cause with nobody saying anything different stops being anecdotal. I'm sorry, it is only evidence that here in Texas the buying is caused by Obama. But I doubt that anyone has heard anything different in any State.

Nomen Nescio | March 19, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply

actually, Volokh's data seems to show there's been an ongoing month-over-month increase in gun sales since November of 2005, with scarcely a let-up in that time. (excepting only December '07, for some reason.) that's actually pretty interesting, i think.

the raw numbers he links to are also interesting. by my eyeballs we're at almost half again the monthly sales of a decade ago; peaking, now as then, in the last two months of the year. 2009 so far looks interesting in that the x-mas rush doesn't seem to have abated like it did every previous year.

Windy Wilson | March 19, 2009 2:35 PM | Reply

The next set of numbers to correlate are the violent crime statistics from 2005 to present.
If fewer guns lead to less crime and more guns lead to more crime, as VPC (aka HCI, aka . . . More aliases than most criminals) insist, then violent crime should be 150% of what it was 10 years ago.

Leave a comment