Fox News Stokes Obama Gun Ban Fears And Then Reports On “Booming” Gun Sales

Fox News is reporting that gun owners are rushing to buy firearms in light of President Obama's reelection at the same time it promotes the very conspiracies about the president's gun policies triggering those sales.

A December 6 FoxNews.com article on the firearms “buying spree” reports that to gun owners, “Obama's re-election, and the apocalypse -- amount to the same thing” while also credulously quoting the unfounded claim of NRA president David Keene that, “Obama is coming right at us” and his second term will be “an all-out assault on the Second Amendment.”

The simultaneous reporting of an uptick in gun sales and promotion of wild-eyed conspiracy theories about Obama's gun policies is commonplace at Fox News, despite the fact that President Obama expanded, rather than restricted, where a gun can be carried during his first term.

On the December 3 edition of Hannity on Fox News, WorldNetDaily columnist Erik Rush discussed the murder-suicide involving NFL player Jovan Belcher, alleging, “Whenever there is a high-profile gun crime the fearmongering begins, the histrionics begin, and all of this stuff really has its genesis in the political left, and particularly the big government political leftists, who want to disarm the public.”

Rush is an outspoken promoter of Obama gun ban conspiracies, who wrote about “efforts on the part of the political left to disarm Americans.” He went on to claim that, “at nowhere in our history has there been a greater potential for armed conflict between the government and the American people.”

The bottom line is that Americans need to wake up to the fact that (as I also said on “Hannity”) all gun-control measures are efforts on the part of the political left to disarm Americans. As governments have known for millennia, unarmed populations are infinitely easier to control than armed ones. This effort will continue to move “Forward,” particularly since Barack Obama was re-elected.

The Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America was intended to facilitate citizens' protection from a tyrannical government should the occasion ever arise. In layman's terms, this means militarily engaging the operatives of a criminal regime - with guns. The current administration is bristling with radical Marxists, and I would wager that 80 percent of Americans aren't even capable of conceptualizing the lengths to which they are prepared to go to manifest their decades-long dream of a Marxist America.

This being the case, at nowhere in our history has there been a greater potential for armed conflict between the government and the American people. Consequently, preserving Americans' Second Amendment rights has never been more important.

On November 29, Fox Business host Stuart Varney stated, “as we all know, sales of guns have been booming this year,” before hosting National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, who previously purported to reveal evidence of a "massive Obama conspiracy" to ban firearm ownership. LaPierre's NRA organization went on to wage an unsuccessful $12 million dollar effort to remove Obama from office on the basis of this conspiracy.

During his appearance, LaPierre warned of a “full siege on the Second Amendment” and claimed, “the only way we're going to withstand this is to make the NRA stronger than ever. We are going to face an unprecedented blizzard of assault. It's going to come hard, it's going to come fast, it's going to come soon. And never before, if you're a freedom loving American, has so much been at the edge of a precipice.”

Varney concluded the segment by saying it had been an “excellent commercial for the NRA.” The previous day, Varney hosted Arizona gun store owner Cope Reynolds, who stated, “Many of us very much believe that [Obama] is going to implement more than just an assault weapons ban.”

In recent months Fox has frequently run segments on “booming” gun sales, often drawing a connection between the sales and fears about Obama's second term.

On the November 29 edition of Happening Now, Fox News reporter Anna Kooiman reported from a shooting range that gun shops owners are attributing the surge in gun sales to “politics and Mother Nature, fears that lawmakers might soon enact tougher gun control laws.”

During a September 17 Fox & Friends segment on “skyrocket[ing]” gun sales, host Brian Kilmeade asked a gun store owner Rich Wyatt, “Why are people running to grab their gun? Are they concerned about the president being reelected?” Wyatt -- channeling the NRA's "massive Obama conspiracy" -- stated “I think when he got elected the first time people were very concerned about whether they would be able to get guns in the future. And I think they are even more concerned now. Because if Barack Obama was to be reelected -- which I don't think he will be -- then we will see the true Barack Obama and we will get to see him make the rest of the country look like Chicago.”

During the September 11 edition of Fox & Friends, host Steve Doocy stated, “50 percent. That's how much gun sales have risen at [gun retailer] Smith & Wesson. Gun dealers say people are worried they could see stricter gun laws if President Obama is reelected. So they're stocking up now.”

In July, Fox News ran at least seven segments to suggest that that a United Nations treaty with the goal of preventing arms diversion to human rights abusers was actually a pretext to attack gun ownership in the United States. The claims were baseless, as the draft treaty affirms “the sovereign right” of countries to regulate firearms “pursuant to its own legal or constitutional system.” Further, the Department of State declared that it will oppose any final treaty that contains “restrictions on civilian possession or trade of firearms otherwise permitted by law or protected by the U.S. Constitution.”