美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Democrats Are Good For Gun Sales': Guess What Happened After Trump's Election

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Donald Trump¹ won the support of the National Rifle Association and many gun owners by opposing any limits to the Second Amendment's right to bear arms. Here he is at the NRA convention last May.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Now, we're going to preserve it. We're going to cherish it. We're going to take care of it, OK?

MARTIN: And while gun rights enthusiasts² may be happy that Trump won, gun shop owners are feeling a financial hit. NPR's Uri Berliner explains why.

URI BERLINER, BYLINE³: The economics of the gun industry are different. Most businesses are influenced by things like interest rates and consumer confidence. In the gun industry, politics and fear matter, and they matter a lot. Over the past two years, there was plenty of both to go around - terror attacks and school shootings and, of course, the presidential campaign. Guns and ammunition⁴ sold fast. Now, since Donald Trump's victory, not so much.

TOM JENKINS: On this side right here, what we've got are various types of AR-15 rifles.

BERLINER: That's Tom Jenkins of NOVA Firearms in McLean, Va. He's showing me the semiautomatic military-style weapons on a rack behind the counter of the shop.

JENKINS: And right now we have one, two, three, four, five in stock on the wall.

BERLINER: Last year, customers were worried these types of firearms would be singled out for a ban by Hillary Clinton.

JENKINS: During the political crisis, we had dozens of them downstairs, and then there would be zero, and it would go again and it'd go again. And then right up to the election, it - literally⁵ brought them in, brought them up and sold them.

BERLINER: Jenkins is an ex-cop, former military, a public radio fan - one of those rare people who talks about Donald Trump's victory without glee or despair.

JENKINS: It was interesting because it was a shock for pretty much everybody, whether you're on the conservative side or a liberal side. It was like, what's going to happen now?

JAMES HARDIMAN: What happened probably quicker than anything is that the gun-related stocks were in free fall.

BERLINER: James Hardiman follows the firearms industry for Wedbush Securities. On the day after the election, shares of gunmaker Sturm Ruger fell 14 percent, and the price of Smith & Wesson, which has changed its name to American Outdoor Brands, it fell 15 percent. Shares for both are still down while the overall stock market has enjoyed big post-election gains. All of this points to that weird⁶ dynamic in the gun business.

HARDIMAN: I think people that follow this industry know this well - but maybe people that don't, it's a little bit counterintuitive - but, generally, Democrats⁷ are very good for gun sales.

BERLINER: This fear that Democrats will make it a lot harder to buy guns has never been very likely, according to Hardiman, and the idea that they'll ban guns altogether, he calls that pure fantasy.

HARDIMAN: Nonetheless, it's fantasy that has worked in the favor of the gun industry for quite some time.

BERLINER: Those fears essentially⁸ melted away with Donald Trump's victory. Over at NOVA Firearms, Tom Jenkins says politics aren't driving the business right now. Customers are choosey. The basics of supply and demand are at work.

JENKINS: And so for the first couple of months after the election, no one's in a hurry anymore.

BERLINER: Uri Berliner, NPR News.

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1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 enthusiasts   

n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A group of enthusiasts have undertaken the reconstruction of a steam locomotive. 一群火车迷已担负起重造蒸汽机车的任务。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. 一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。 来自新概念英语第二册

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

5 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

6 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。