Over 9 Million AR-15 Rifles Made While Obama Was President
Kevin Felts 09.04.18
President Obama with his gun control rhetoric may have been the worlds best gun salesman, at least in modern times. During the eight years Obama was president, over 9 million AR-15 rifles were manufactured.
Let’s break that down.
There are 365 1/4 days in a year, with February having an extra day every 4 years for leap year. 365 days in a year X 8 years Obama was in office = 2,920 days. Let’s add two days for leap year for a total of 2,922 days while Obama was president.
9 million divided by 2,922 = 3,080.
So there were an estimated 3,080 AR-15s made everyday for eight years. That is an absolutely amazing number.
Over 9 Million AR-15s Manufactured for U.S. Sales During Obama Presidency.
More than nine million AR-15 rifles were manufactured for U.S. sales during Barack Obama’s presidency.
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In total, “companies made 9.3 million AR-style and similar rifles in the U.S. for domestic sales from 2009 through 2016.” Only 2.1 million ARs were made for domestic sales during the 19 years leading up to Obama’s presidency.
If we use the 9.3 million number, that equals 3,182 rifles during the eight years President Obama was in office.
Opinion
There are numerous thoughts which come to mind on this topic.
First, the United States maintains a state of readiness few nations in the world can compare to. Let’s take Russia and China for example. The government and law enforcement have to support small arms manufacturers in those nations.
In the United States, the civilian market supports small arms manufacturers. This leaves the government free to spend money in other areas. This means there would almost no retooling would be needed if the United States needed to purchase small arms from numerous companies.
No factories would have to be built, no craftsman trained, no supply chains set up… as those are already in place.
Second, nations all over the world realize the United States maintains an enormous capacity for war time production.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is credited with saying, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” However, there is no solid evidence to indicate he made the statement.
3,000 AR-15s made a day does not include handguns, shotguns, other types of rifles… etc. Chances are we produce more small arms than any other nation in the world, and we are not even geared up for war time production.
Third, part of the production was based on the fear of Hillary becoming President. When Trump became president, gun sales took a nose dive, which created the great Trump Slump. As a result, AR-15 prices took a nose dive.
Final Thoughts
Regardless of how someone wants to break it down or how they want to look at it, 3,000 AR-15 rifles a day is an amazing level of production.
While President Obama talked about a lot of stuff, one thing is for sure, he helped make a lot of AR-15s.
