NEWS,15.12.2012

Gun Sales In 2012 Set Record, FBI Data Indicates

The gun business in the United States is thriving and the tragic events on Friday in Newtown, Conn. may likely do little to quell Americans' spending on munitions.The Federal Bureau of Investigation recorded more than 16.8 million background checks for gun purchases in 2012, the highest number since the FBI began publishing the data in 1998. A record number of requests for background checks for gun buyers went through on Black Friday in November, the FBI reported at the time, in part because of fears that President Barack Obama and other lawmakers would tighten gun control laws. The FBI does not track actual firearms purchases, and the number of weapons sold could be even higher than the number of background-check calls because customers can purchase multiple guns, USA Today reports.If the past is any indication, Friday's mass shooting will do little to slow the pace of sales. It’s not uncommon for gun sales to see a boost following a mass shooting, as buyers head to stores mostly motivated by self-defense, according to the Christian Science Monitor. In the first four days following the July mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., gun sales increased 41 percent, the CSM reported. On Friday some pro-gun groups took to Twitter urging people to buy guns: Conservative pundit Ann Coulter tweeted "more guns, less mass shootings" in the wake of the event. Gun control proponents outraged by Friday's events called for action. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged Obama to take "immediate action" to tighten gun laws.Though the industry is doing well, overall gun ownership is actually on the decline, according to political scientist Patrick Egan. Firearm ownership is at near all-time lows. Still, the firearms industry had a $31.8 billion impact on the economy last year, up from $27.8 billion in 2009, due to job creation, sales and taxes levied on guns, according to data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The firearms industry didn't see much dropoff in the recession that hit so many other U.S. businesses. Gun industry-related jobs grew by more than 30 percent between 2008 and 2011, according to NSSF data cited by Forbes.

 

25 Statistics That Reveal Everything You Need To Know About The U.S. Firearms Industry

 

On Friday, December 14, a gunman entered an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and shot and killed 26 people including 20 children. Earlier that same week, an Oregon man shot three people at a shopping mall before taking his own life. A few months before that, a gunman entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and left having taken 12 lives. Tragedies such as these have raised serious questions about a firearms industry growing larger and more powerful everyday. Today, it's easier for most Americans to access guns than it is to find mental health treatment. Such realities have set in motion a conversation about the nation's gun control laws, and the powerful industry such rules would regulate. So how big is the gun economy really?

Here is everything you need to know about the U.S. firearms industry:

31 billion - Economic impact of the firearms industry in 2011 in dollars.

19 billion - Economic impact of the firearms industry in 2008 in dollars.

4 billion - The number of dollars spent in annual commercial gun and ammunitions sales  a 20-year high.

270 to 300 million - Estimated number of guns owned by Americans. That's about one for every American citizen.

158 million - Number of background checks conducted since the FBI was mandated to do so by Congress in 1993.

70 to 80 million - Number of Americans who own guns.

45 million - Number of Americans estimated to own handguns.

16.8 million - Number of background checks for gun sales in 2012.

8.5 million - Number of background checks for gun sales in 2002.

154,873 - The record number of background check calls the FBI reported receiving on Black Friday this year.

700 to 2000 - Cost of a .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle, which some reports indicate was the type of firearm used in the attack in Newtown, CT.

200 - Percent profit boost for gunmakers since Obama was elected in 2008.

96 - Percent of the $3 million that gun lobbyists donated during the 2012 election that went to Republicans.

87 - Percent of children killed in the 23 wealthiest nations who are American.

80 - Percent of gun deaths from the 23 wealthiest countries that are American deaths.

78 - Percent of Americans who favored making the sale of firearms “more strict” in 1990.

62.8 - Percent of people who own guns in Wyoming, the state with the highest rate of gun ownership in the U.S.

62 - Percent of 125 online sellers who said they "probably couldn't pass a background check."

47 - Percent of Americans who report owning a gun.

44 - Percent of Americans who favored making the sale of firearms “more strict” in 2010.

40 - 45 - Percent of U.S. households that own a gun.

33 - Percent increase in Winchester’s ammunition sales since 2007.

16.2 - Percent of people who own guns in Connecticut.

4.44 - Percent that gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Company’s stock fell on the day of the Newtown school shooting.

1 - U.S.’s ranking in guns owned per 100 people.

Europe Has Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself

The eurozone will not break up. The price of departure is simply too great for any one country. Indeed, when Mario Draghi announced on 6 September that the European Central Bank (ECB) would undertake unlimited purchases of government bonds, the continent crossed the bridge to its future.Europe's leaders must see that the drawbridge has been lifted behind them. They cannot back out of this, and thus must steel themselves for the journey ahead. Moreover, they must also realize that for the European project to succeed which it must monetary union must be accompanied by four other kinds of union: a banking union; a fiscal union; a "competitiveness" union, or convergence; and, to all intents and purposes, a political union. And to be sustainable over the long term, the continent's political economy must be capable of reintegrating its youth and present an ideal worth fighting for. This is a long and ambitious list, but the deeper one thinks about the European situation, the more inevitable these conclusions become.Ever closer European integration, since Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Paris in April 1951, has been of enduring benefit to generations. Can we imagine a European history without the development of institutions designed to bring European countries together under shared values and common ideals? It is unthinkable.The euro itself has provided major economic rewards: it eliminated exchange risk, lowered inflation, increased trade across the eurozone, and more tightly integrated European financial markets. More generally, the single currency has contributed to an underlying culture of monetary stability and predictability within the eurozone, a critical point often forgotten in today's discussions.The crisis, however, surfaced critical flaws in the eurozone's structure. Europe lacked a strong and common fiscal policy; divergence in competitiveness between the northern and southern economies created a risk of default that had gone unrecognized; and the absence of a banking union created intolerable systemic risks. Adding fuel to the fire, the complexity of European political institutions, and the increasing democratic deficit that it represents in the view of the public, has led to an "executive deficit": an inability to make real decisions.What is clear is that the euro must survive in more or less its current form, but the deficiencies in the institutions that surround it must be addressed. The first is a banking union: an absolute prerequisite for a monetary union to succeed. A robust banking union must have shared bank supervision, a shared bank recapitalization mechanism and a shared bank deposit guarantee. The good news is that the first of these was put in place on 12 September with the proposal of a single supervisory mechanism under the ECB. The two other items are destined to follow, with the ever present caveat in Europe that negotiations will be complex and will take years to resolve.As the talks of a banking union drag on, they will inevitably lead to discussion of a fiscal union, as the different pieces are intertwined and complement each other the idea of a banking union without a fiscal backstop makes little sense. There will be three parts to any kind of fiscal union in Europe: a programme of direct bank recapitalization in Europe's case, by the European Stability Mechanism; an EU-wide system of deposit insurance that both prevents a run on banks in weaker countries and reduces moral hazard; and some form of debt mutualization.Before the anti-federalists recoil in dismay, it is important not to fall prey to binary thinking - it is not "everything or nothing". Between no fiscal union of any kind and a fully-fledged "United States" or Swiss-style confederation, many possible intermediate states exist that would contribute to a much greater sense of fiscal solidarity and discipline.Reform of European financial governance is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success. It will not be able to gloss over the major issue at the centre of the crisis: the competitiveness gap between Europe's north and its south. Fixing the EU banking system and regaining macroeconomic stability will do a lot to help southern countries increase their productivity but, importantly, these countries will need to engage in a long-term project to increase their labour market flexibility, foster competition and competitiveness, and make more and better investments in growth-enhancing areas such as education, technology and innovation.A crucial consequence of all these reforms must be the injection of entrepreneurial energy into the continent's "lost generation". Youth unemployment is a cancer at the heart of the European economy, stealing its future and sapping its growth potential for decades to come.The good news is that reforms are underway. Despite slow progress in implementation, the "Europe 2020" strategy is designed to kick-start competitiveness in the region. I believe that the path ahead is clear, that Europe's leaders will begin to look forward with hope and optimism and not backward with fear, and that Europe is more likely to confound the pessimists as the year ahead unfolds.The continent's optimism will strengthen as leaders recognize that Europe stands together or falls apart. There is no country on the continent sheltered from the pain of this crisis. What is crucial now is that the continent's polity is able to envision the gain that will emerge from the pain, and is able to articulate this in a way that pulls them towards their shared future.