Fox News is reporting that gun sales are up dramatically in several “swing states” where voters could swing the presidential election outcome one way or the other Nov. 3, and that could foretell good results for President Donald Trump, who has consistently mentioned protecting the Second Amendment during his campaign appearances.
Liberty Park Press did some checking and found strong numbers of citizens who are licensed or permitted to carry concealed firearms, another strong signal. Now the task for gun rights activists is to make sure those gun owners vote.
According to the Fox News report, “While the issue of the Second Amendment hasn’t necessarily been at the forefront of this campaign cycle, the notion of gun rights has been a significant flashpoint throughout the turmoil and uncertainty of this year – induced by the ongoing global pandemic and national shutdown and further enhanced by the rioting and unrest that has permeated much of the country in recent months.”
Fox News may be in error on this, since gun rights have always been a pivotal issue in this campaign. All of the Democrats running in the primaries had gun control planks in their platforms, and now that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the nominees, their gun control scheme is out there for all to see.
Under the Biden plan, semi-auto “assault rifles” would be banned, so-called “smart gun” technology would be pushed, there would be licensing, limits on gun purchases to one per month, “buyback” efforts, prohibitions on so-called “large capacity magazines” and more.
The key states spotlighted by the Fox report are North Carolina, where sales have skyrocketed to 114.5 percent above last year; Michigan, which has seen a whopping 114 percent surge in gun sales over the same period in 2019; Arizona, where gun sales are 84.5 percent above this time last year; New Hampshire, with 78.9 percent more reported sales; Wisconsin, where sales are up 66.6 percent; Florida, where gun sales have jumped 59.4 percent, and Pennsylvania, with 27.7 percent more gun sales.
Interestingly, Liberty Park Press learned that Florida now reports 2,162,510 active concealed carry licenses while Pennsylvania has 1,496,312 active licenses, according to the State Police. Michigan had 672,072 active licenses as of Sept. 1, and Arizona listed 369,369 active licenses on its website earlier this month.
Trump’s references to the Second Amendment invariably bring loud reactions from his audiences, suggesting gun rights may be a more important issue among voters turning out for his rallies than the establishment press and pundits may believe.
And earlier this week, when White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany held a morning press briefing defending the president’s intention to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the passing of liberal Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she had this to say, according to a White House transcript:
“President Trump will appoint the next Supreme Court justice. President Trump will protect religious liberty. President Trump will protect our freedom of speech. President Trump will protect our Second Amendment.”
In a Wednesday email blast, anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety was raising alarms about a new Washington Post-ABC News poll of likely voters showing Trump jumping ahead of Biden in Florida, 51-47 percent and in Arizona 49-48 percent.
In Virginia, the Washington Post is reporting a record number of people voting early and requesting absentee ballots since voting began last Friday. Gun owners have been energized in the Old Dominion over the way Democrats used their new majority power to ram through a list of gun control measures earlier this year despite protests from tens of thousands of gun owners in January at the Capitol in Richmond.
