In 1994, the Clinton administration got its ban on so-called assault weapons. These were defined at the time as any firearm with three or more features that somehow made it more deadly than a rifle with only two of them. Anti-gunners loved it, but something interesting happened. A lot of people got into modern sporting rifles because of the ban.
Whereas the AR-15 hadn’t been anything but another rifle on the gun store shelf before the ban, afterward it was the most popular long gun model in the United States.
Since then, we’ve seen numerous cases where bans were enacted, only to see a buying spree. Virginia is a prime example of this, but we’ve seen the same phenomenon in Colorado and Rhode Island this year too.
It seems Oregon is yet another example.
As Oregon awaits further action on a gun control law, researchers have determined the policy’s initial passage increased consumer interest in firearms statewide.
Background checks increased by 14% ahead of the November 2022 general election and rose by 157% following the approval of Measure 114, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Public Economics. Although background checks don’t directly lead to gun purchases, researchers at Oregon State University, the University of Oregon and the National Bureau of Economic Research noted they are an “indicator” of demand.
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They also found that 63,000 additional background checks were conducted in the 18 months after the general election.
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Prior to these findings, experts were unable to determine whether the increase in demand was due to prospective gun owners coincidentally taking action sooner or a direct result of state policy, according to Bollman. But researchers also assessed short-term and long-term data from other states without similar recent legislation, ultimately linking Oregon’s surge to Measure 114.
The study is arguing the state now has thousands of more firearms than it would if the policy weren’t approved, yet Bollman noted there is not an exact number of guns throughout Oregon because there is not a firearm registry.
Now, understand that the stated goal of these laws is to keep guns out of criminal hands, but the whispered part is that the way to do that is to reduce the total number of guns on the streets across the board. Even if they don’t think you’re a criminal in the making, they figure you’re going to get robbed, and a criminal will steal your guns, and thus you should not have them.
But this study shows something different entirely.
I’ve long argued that these laws prompt people who only toyed with the idea of getting a gun to actually do it. So long as it was always an option, they probably weren’t too concerned with it. It’s like the people who live near some monument or landmark, but have never visited it. It’s because it’s always there. There’s no pressing need to do it like there would be if you’re in the area for only a week.
Measure 114, like other gun control laws meant to make it harder for people to get a gun as a way of discouraging gun ownership, just changes the dynamic so people flock to the gun stores in the first place.
In other words, gun control creates gun owners.
Whoops.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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