BIGPICTURE

Gun control could lead to more gun sales in the U.S.

Michael Moore’ s controversial Bowling for Columbine released in 2002 created waves by exploring the dark side of American gun culture. As The Telegraph writer Natalie Wain noted last year, critics have questioned Moore’ s biased approach .“What isn’ t in question ,” she added ,“is the impact of Moore’ s seminal film .” True enough, at least if you are looking at the documentary’ s impact on the film industry. But if the goal was to reduce fire arm demand, Moore missed the mark. The global market for small arms, which is dominated by U.S. exports and imports, will top US $5.3 billion by the end of the decade, up from US $4.1- billion in 2014, according to Dallas-based Markets and Markets.

Most of the growth in firearms is expected to be driven by the U.S. —where FBI background checks( considered the best proxy for gun sales) increased to 21 million in 2014 from 8.5 million in 2002. Total firearms manufactured in the U.S. during the same period increased to more than 8.5 million from 3.3 million, according to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives statistics.

Nobody knows exactly how many guns are in the hands of U.S. civilians. Estimates range from 245 million to more than the U.S. population. What is known is that America tops the list of per-capita gun ownership. And that isn’ t going to change anytime soon thanks to increasing demand for both long guns and hand guns( automatic pistols are more popular than slow-shooting revolvers ), despite calls for more gun control.

On Black Friday this past November, shortly after terrorists attacked Paris, the FBI received a record 185,345 background check requests related to consumer gun purchases. The previous daily high of 177,170 came on the heels of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shootings in Connecticut. Simply put, fear of gun violence creates U.S. demand for guns, especially among young women, the fastest-growing consumer segment. According to an investor presentation by Smith& Wes son last March, women represent 37% of new American sports hooters verses 22% of established shooters. About two-third so fall new sports hooters are 18-34 years old.

Texas senator and GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz demonstrated the staying power of American gun culture last August, when he used it to appeal to U.S. voters by frying bacon on the red-hot barrel of an AR -15 assault rifle. The Pew Research Center reports that Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to come from a gun-toting household. But you can blame Democrats for increasing fire arm demand. After all, following the Sandy Hook mass shooting, President Ba rack Obama created a boom in industry sales by vowing to crack down on gun ownership. As industry analyst Brian Rut ten bur told American media ,“The best thing for gun sales has been the O ba ma administration .” And that’ s why more than a few industry executives would love to see anti-gun Hillary Clinton return to the White House as the next U.S. president.