Donald Trump might seem to be the NRA’s perfect president. He has signed an executive order to unwind Obama-era gun restrictions, put NRA president Wayne LaPierre at his side during a White House meeting of conservatives, and is spending his 99th day in office speaking to the NRA convention today in Atlanta. His “Second Amendment Advisory Commission” is chaired by the NRA’s top lobbyist. But the Trump era hasn’t been all good news for the NRA and the gun industry, says the Daily Beast. For one thing, gun sales have tanked since November’s election, after reaching all-time highs under President Obama.
The number of instant FBI background checks dropped by about 1 million applications in the first two months after Trump was elected, compared to the same time a year before, and were down again in February and March. Experts said that fear of gun restrictions under Obama prompted the sky-high sales. A Trump presidency, with a Republican controlled House and Senate and 31 Republican governors, is also testing the lengths the NRA can go to without running into a backlash from voters, especially in the highly educated suburban districts where Trump struggled in 2016.