Fear

The idea that an Obama administration is going to make major changes in gun policy strikes me as bizarre. Obama is nothing if not a sharp politician, and I think he realizes that this is not the issue on which to bet a lot of chips.

Still, it is a sign of the hysteria on the right that we can expect for the next four (and hopefully eight) years that gun purchases are up dramatically as gun nuts near and far stock up before Obama gets into office:

"I have been in business for 12 years, and I was here for Y2K, September 11th, Katrina," [gun shop owner Bernie] Conatser said as a steady stream of customers browsed what remained of his stock. "And all of those were big events, and we did notice a spike in business, but nothing on the order of what we are seeing right now."

Weapons dealers in much of the United States are reporting sharply higher sales since Barack Obama won the presidency a week ago. Buyers and sellers attribute the surge to worries that Obama and a Democratic-controlled Congress will move to restrict firearm ownership, despite the insistence of campaign aides that the president-elect supports gun rights and considers the issue a low priority.

Incidentally, if you do a google image search for "gun fear" this comes up a lot: