A bulletproof bottom line
GUN MAKERS are biting no bullets in the current recession. Firearm sales rose 26 percent at Springfield-based Smith & Wesson from Election Day through January. The Connecticut firm Sturm, Ruger & Co. reported a 21-percent increase over last year. Analysts say fears - stoked by the National Rifle Association - that Barack Obama would be the most antigun president in American history are fueling the increases.
Correspondingly, the FBI recorded 26 percent more background checks for gun purchases from October to February than in the same period a year before. The 6.7 million checks were by far the most in any five-month stretch since passage of the Brady Act, which requires the checks - far more than in even the five months after Sept. 11.
Buoyed by its recession-proof status, the gun lobby is playing stick-up on Capitol Hill, trying to influence bills dealing with everything from troubled streets to pristine forests. For example, legislation giving the District of Columbia voting rights in Congress is being held hostage by a Senate requirement that DC abjure any future efforts to enact gun control. Last week, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty threw in the towel, saying he would accept the Senate's restriction in order to get voting rights.
Similarly, a House plan to vastly expand wilderness protection was tied up over fears that members would attach amendments allowing possession of loaded, concealed guns in national parks. The House ultimately passed the bill yesterday, after attempts to attach the gun measure were beaten back.
Allowing such weapons in national parks was one of the most thoughtless of President Bush's outgoing midnight rules, which took effect in January. Happily, US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last week issued a preliminary injunction, saying the rule was conjured up in an "astoundingly flawed process." Responding to a suit by gun-control and park advocates, the judge said the Bush administration made no effort to assess possible environmental impacts of people packing heat in these peaceful places.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he is reviewing the rule. But when he was Colorado senator, his office said the rule was "sensible." The Obama Justice Department inexplicably fought the injunction, joining the NRA. When Attorney General Eric Holder recently murmured about repealing the assault weapons ban, 65 House Democrats wrote Holder a letter in fervent opposition. Obama himself needs to be a voice of sanity here. The recession may be a silver bullet for gun makers, but the NRA shouldn't be allowed to gun down democracy. 