Gun manufacturing, particularly the production of pistols, are up dramatically under President Barack Obama.

Despite the fact that Congress has bottled up Obama’s efforts to impose new gun control laws, the gun industry has enjoyed booming production under the current administration by using the president as boogeyman. In fact, gun manufacturing has more than doubled during the Obama administration.

In 2008, the gun industry produced 4.5 million firearms. By 2013, the total had skyrocketed to 10.8 million guns—a 140% increase—according to a new report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Pistols led the way as the most popular kind of firearm. There were 4.4 million handguns manufactured in 2013.

Obama’s efforts to place new restrictions on gun ownership and expand background checks put a scare into the gun community that’s motivated them to make more purchases, according to Tim Devaney at The Hill.

“The ATF report confirms what we already know, that Barack Obama deserves the ‘Gun Salesman of the Decade’ award,” Erich Pratt, spokesman for the Gun Owners of America, told The Hill. “People have been rushing to buy firearms because they’re afraid that Obama will take away their Second Amendment rights.”

In fact, the gun boom is the result of scare tactics employed by the gun industry, according to gun safety advocates. “The gun lobby seizes on those fears and uses scare tactics and doomsday rhetoric in order to sell more guns,” Mark Prentice, spokesman for Americans for Responsible Solutions, the organization operated by former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, told The Hill.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, Danny Biederman

To Learn More:

Firearms Commerce in the United States (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives)

Gun Production Has Doubled Under Obama (by Tim Devaney, The Hill)

As Hunting and Gun Ownership Decline, Remaining Gun Owners Stock Up (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

One Third of Americans Own Guns, but Only 4% Go Hunting (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)