A famous quote comes to mind after I read any of the articles published on the Huff Post website: “I'm surrounded by idiots.” The article was titled: What Would Happen If Guns Were Taken Away? And, the person behind the keyboard made some very bold statements about what would happen if half of them, to include “assault rifles” and some handguns, were taken away. If I had enough time, I could debunk the entire thing because, as the gun-grabbers usually do, this person spouted half-truths.
But, I don't have time to talk about the article in its entirety because I'm supposed to be running a headless chicken race later on this afternoon that I have to check in to (it's called life, and I'm already running late for it). Alas, I only have time to discuss the “money part” that this poor sap spoke about concerning the economy. And I quote: “The number of guns manufactured and imported each year would drop by more than half, but the loss of roughly $13 billion in a GDP of almost $18 trillion would hardly be noticed at all.”
Let's enter this conversation on idiocy by stating that, if America's GDP is $18 trillion, but we are $19 trillion (and climbing) in debt, we are screwed. But, we'll get to that point in a minute…
So, I'm not sure where they're getting their figures from, but the actual economic impact for the firearms industry is just south of $50 Billion, as we've covered in the past after the NSSF put out their report. I'm not going to get into how that breaks down into revenue for the country, but let's say that their estimate of the amount of guns manufactured/imported would drop by half, that's still an economic impact of $25 Billion.
That's not exactly a tiny figure. But, according to this author (who I've linked to at the very bottom of this article), it wouldn't really be felt in an $18 trillion dollar economy. Before we get to that, however, let's take another stance. Last year, there were just under 288,000 firearms-industry related jobs. This extends out to gun makers and sellers, ammo makers and sellers, gun writers (like yours truly), gun testers, and everyone else I'm forgetting.
If we take away half, per the author's instructions, that would be 144,000 jobs lost. Considering that some estimates have the unemployment rate between 8-10 million jobless people, it wouldn't be a good idea to send 144,000 more from one single industry, to the unemployment line.
If you're still unconvinced, let's go a step further…
The current wages for all 288,000 firearms-industry related jobs makes a combined $14.5 billion per year. If we fire half of them, those 144,000 people will be missing out on $7.25 billion dollars per year. My friends, that isn't chump change. That equates to people losing their houses, becoming homeless, and having to work in industries they've never had to work in before. Some people may require going back to school for more training which would be an added expense.
Let's step out onto the debt issue:
Or, we can take the “debt stance.” What I mean here, is that America, as a nation, is over $19 trillion dollars in debt. If you weren't sure, that's fricken huge. And honestly, we need every dollar we can generate to help us get out of this mess. Every cent that the firearms, automotive, appliance, and all the others currently being brought in is money we don't have to worry about turning into debt.
So, to the Huff Po author's point, while $25 billion dollars is a small amount when compared to the GDP of $18 trillion, it certainly helps and most people would rather not have to worry about the $25 billion dollar hole that would inevitably come from taking half of our guns away.
And, when you consider that the actual amount of money we generate from guns is much higher, at $50 billion last year alone, and continually growing, you can really begin to see why we can't afford to have half of the jobs and business taken away. In all reality, if guns were “taken away,” the number would likely be much higher than the author's proposed “half.”
One of the guns they want to do away with is the AR-15, which also just happens to be the current best seller in the gun world. You also have to wonder where they would stop. Would they stop at AR-15s and handguns? At this point, only time will tell.
Sound Off Gun Carriers! Do you agree with my math? Do you think they'll ever get around to banning “assault rifles” again? Let us know in the comments below and make sure you like our Facebook page.
Here is the source article, if you're looking to destroy some brain cells.
