This October was a slow month for most businesses, but not if you sell firearms. Anticipating crackdowns in the wake of an Obama win, there were 108,000 more background checks for gun purchases than this month last year. Fear of restrictions in the wake of a Democratic president usually is enough to spike weapons purchases from buyers scared they won't be able to get the perfect gift for the holidays. Virginia ten-year-old Austin Smith's fear of not getting a gun for Christmas strikes a deep chord in our Constitution-loving heart:The children of America have but one question:

When 10-year-old Austin Smith heard Barack Obama had been elected president, he had one question: Does this mean I won't get a new gun for Christmas?

Yes, Austin. Run to Wal-Mart! Buy that gun now, now, now! Seriously, though, before you call child protection services, this is the way Virginia mom Rachel Smith feeds her family — she has her toddlers hunt game. And....I just sold all my Stop'N'Shop stock.

Although Obama strongly emphasized over the course of the campaign that he doesn't want to take guns away from hunters, he didn't make that same exception for 10 year-olds, the bastard. The resulting panic has put smiles on the faces of gun dealers, just like in the last golden age of guns. “Clinton was the best gun salesman the gun manufacturers ever had," Rick Gray, owner of the Accuracy Gun Shop in Las Vegas told the NYT. "Obama’s going to be right up there with him." No matter what he was going to say, the NRA continues to prepare its campaign of information:

"Making guns in this country childproof." "Childproof" is a codeword for a variety of schemes designed to prevent the sale of firearms by imposing impossible or highly expensive design requirements, such as biometric shooter-identification systems. While no one opposes keeping children safe, the fact is that accidental firearm-related deaths among children have decreased 86 percent since 1975, even as the numbers of children and guns have risen dramatically. Today, the chances of a child being killed in a firearm accident are less than one in a million.

No one believes in gun rights more than I do — I have almost 6,000 antique rifles in a cabinet next to my collection of Jack Kirby comic books, and I have killed a man — but is this really a winning issue for the NRA?