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The seven graphs that show exactly how badly Barack Obama has done on guns 6 charts that show Barack Obama is losing the battle against gun control
(about 3 hours later)
Only a few days after Barack Obama said that his greatest frustration were gun laws in the US, the president’s woeful record on gun control can be bleakly demonstrated in the following six graphs. Sandy Hook, Fort Hood, Charleston: with each atrocity more and more people in the US have called for a reckoning on guns. But despite Barack Obama's increasingly outspoken comments on the need for better national firearms control, the president has been unable to steer the debate and the country towards a tighter crackdown on the manufacture and sale of firearms.
Each graph shows the number of weapons, broken down by type and then overall, manufactured in the US since 1993. That takes in three presidencies (two Democrat leaders and one Republican) and a twenty-year sweep. In the past eight years the US has been repeatedly shocked by violent gun atrocities in which multiple people have been shot dead by lone gunmen.
The data, taken from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, demonstrates that gun manufacture actually fell during the Mr Clinton admiration and rose only slightly under Mr Bush’s. In 2009, 13 people died in Fort Hood, Texas, in November. Mr Obama labelled the attacks "incomprehensible". Only months before this, another 13 had died at the hands of Jiverly Wong in Binghampton, New York, in another attack.
The biggest increase is during Mr Obama’s tenure. In some case the number of specific types of guns, such as rifles, almost tripled in the twenty year period. Not one graph indicates that gun levels have done anything but rocket since Mr Obama took office. More recently, Dylann Roof gunned down nine people at a church in Charleston.
It does not include firearms made for the US military – but does include items manufactured for export. The data also only runs up to 2013 (the latest available data) as the preceding year’s information is protected by the US’s Trade Secrets Act. But perhaps it was the killing of 20 children at Sandy Hook in 2012 - the worst school massacre in America's history - that distilled many Americans concerns that gun crime is out of control.
Following the atrocity, which many thought would be a turning point for the nation, Mr Obama said he would make gun control a "central issue" of his second term. But, as the charts below demonstrate, with 18 months left of his presidency, Mr Obama seems as far away from fixing the problem as ever.
  
  
  
And this is the overall figure. As you might expect, it is not a pretty picture.
  
 
This shows the number of 'Miscellaneous' weapons purchased. We were not entirely sure what fell under this category, but according to the Bureau’s website, this can include - but probably are not limited to – items such as pistol grip firearms, starter guns and receivers.
 
And here, finally, are the numbers of guns overall in the US. As you might expect, it is not a pretty picture.
 
Additionally, even though 84,000 were injured by guns and more than 11,000 people killed by someone with a gun in 2013 (according for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) – public perception of firearm rights has only improved.Additionally, even though 84,000 were injured by guns and more than 11,000 people killed by someone with a gun in 2013 (according for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) – public perception of firearm rights has only improved.
  
The data, taken from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, demonstrates that gun manufacture increased during Mr Obama’s tenure. In some case the number of specific types of guns, such as rifles, almost tripled in the 20-year period. Not one graph indicates that gun levels have done anything but rocket since Mr Obama took office.
  
A Pew survey found that since 1993 the percentage of Americans who believed in the right of US citizens to own firearms has only increased, rising from 34 per cent to 52 per cent. Meanwhile, the percentage of those who think gun ownership control is more important has fallen – from 57 per cent to 46 per cent. What this means is that of the past three US presidents - Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton -  the number of guns manufactured in the US and the support for Americans to have the right to own their own guns has been significantly more pronounced under President Obama. 
It is not through a lack of effort.
At least 23 executive orders on control have been signed by the President, including:
• Issuing a presidential memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System(NICS).
• Addressing unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), that may prevent states from making information available to NICS.
• Improving incentives for states to share information with NICS.
• Directing the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
• Proposing a rule making to give law enforcement authorities the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
But it all appears to be falling on deaf ears - and it seems unlikely to change anytime soon.