Obviously the gun buyers of this record gun sales season are the have's because the have not's can't afford them since all of their money goes towards putting food on the table. It's also not a sign of fear of crime, but of a paranoia of an upcoming revolution. In areas where guns are illegal, gun violence for the most part, only happen to those involved in the game of criminality, while in Republican, gun legal areas, it happens out of gun play. I'm a former Marine/Vietnam Veteran without a gun that can't understand why anybody would ever need a gun when they have GOD! QUICO!

I just listened to Mr. O'Donnell. He seems to be rather uneducated about the gun industry as well as sportsman in the USA. I can't answer why the sales were so high, but I know the sale of levi's, wranglers, woolrich, pendleton clothing items were high as well. Not to mention the number of I phones and droids. There is always someone who needs to make some news out of something. Maybe all candidates as well as O'Donnell could focus on all of the out sourcing we do. God is alive and well in Mt.!

Great piece. I'm so happy to be an Aussie, with very little gun ownership, universal health care, and mandatory voting. What a difference core beliefs bring. Even having lived my first 30 years as an American, I find the US incomprehensible. It can only be in it's Puritan past. BTW, listening to an Australian radio reading of The Scarlet Letter at present. perfect.

Happy 2012 all.

Blaming crime on guns is like blaming my pencil for misspelled words. Mr. O' Donnell I just wanted you to realize how uneducated you made your self look and what a poor representative you are of social awareness in this country. And, that's coming from an educator. Although it is teleprompter readers such as yourself that serve as a good example for students that not all those delivering the news are educated about this country and those who live here. I did not appreciate you inferring to the gun owning population as responsible for the crime and in some ways just out of touch paranoid people some how responsible for this country's woes! Sir, you are an idiot, plane and simple. I know you bow down to the execs who want ratings, but c'mon you actually delivered that presentation? i am shocked.

Let me point out a few holes in your "thoughts" by that i mean what you regurgitated back to the public from a screen you read like a trained carnival act. OK listen close because this might shock you! Guns are tools used by people in this country. Yes, this is true. let me help you, reflect on your day, you get up in your really nice home, in a safe neighbor hood, and go to your well paid job. you get hungry, you eat, you need something, you go to the store and bye it. NOT EVERYONE HAS YOUR LIFE STUPID! I own a gun and guess what, I save a lot of money last year putting food on the table. Yes, its true people actually provide food for themselves, and they actually use guns for this purpose. there are many scenarios to justify the use of these tools. and there are those who have actually used them for self defense.

I understand your just reading what comes on a prompt and maybe this will get to those who actually think up the news. You people are way off! you are so disconnected from reality and life in this country you make yourselves into Hippocratic by screaming diversity and all people are equal and should be loved! yet discriminate against those who have actually worked for real (no what you do is not work, its a carnival act!) building this country with real sweat and blood. This is not a working class rant but the fact that you and you show just sat there and discriminated against people who decided to exercise their rights and purchase a gun. Then you turn around and babble some tripe about kids who don't have desk in Africa! Really, um, why don't you look at rural America and see what these school districts are cutting on a yearly basis for our own kids. But no, lets use little broken people in third-world countries to make those who exercise their rights feel bad for not buying a school desk, something I would wager you did not even do your self.

Sorry, sir, you and your crew bit it hard this "teleprompter reading" episode. I only hope you could get out and see the real world we live in and could reflect it as such. But I guess you have to do wht the ring masters tell you to do. Good boy, good boy!

Have a happy new year, be grateful you have your job (because anyone could do what you do, really, they could) If your ever seriously interested in in pulling your head out of the magical world you live in and would like to see how the rest of us really live let me know. till then, enjoy la la land and the reality you make up.

Bob from Oregon

The government encourages all of us to spend in the economy yet the news world critizes on what we spend our money. I want a job like that! sit on my but and make 6 figures passing judgment on everyone else!

Mr. O'Donnell, If you want the democrats to win in this election quit beating up on guns ! Here in Ohio many people hunt many different game. For instance for squirrel you would use your 12 gauge or 22 rifle. For shooting groundhogs you might use a 204 or 223 rifle. Or if I go out west to hunt mule deer on a hunt I have my 7 mag rifle. I'm a staunch democrat if u want to push something it matters, Better focus on the unions!!!! People who can still afford! Don't beat up on my guns,cause only people kill people. So I can justify how many guns I have and my right. So if you want me and many to be a single right voter,get off of it !

I posted what I wanted to say, Love how u you what to track me on what I post ?

One thing that you Aussie's have in common with America is a religious zealotry. Why are there so many religious loonies in these two former colonies?

Hi Lawrence, I watch your show often, but am disappointed in your (or at least your writers') feelings toward gun ownership. I'm one of the most liberal people I know, yet I own several rifles and pistols. There is more to gun ownership than defense or paranoia or fear (not that there aren't plenty of tin-foil-hats among us). But some of us just enjoy the exhibition of skill and sportsmanship required to hit targets on a range in controlled environments. I happen to be one of those people (in addition to someone who made two purchases between November and December myself).

I like a lot of what your show does, Lawrence, but this attitude towards firearms is not helpful in trying to stifle the negative stigma liberals and Democrats have toward firearms. I understand cable news thrives on intensity and conflict, but I don't feel this was a good representation of owners like myself. At least throw in a line that some of us are responsible and level-headed, and we're not all stocking up to kill each other.

I know to a pseudo-intellectual such as yourself Larry people purchasing firearms is shocking. Perish the thought many people use them to compete in any number of shooting sports, or they hunt, or even just want to have them. To a beltway liberal that is just beyond your grasp; even though you and all of PMSNBC constantly "are for the working family". The only working family you are for is the ones who march in lock step with the SEIU, AFSCME, AFGE, AFLCIO, etc...those of us who don't belong to unions and own firearms are not workers in your view.

I must say Larry you did do a good job segueing from all of those "right wingers" purchasing firearms to that plug in there for your save the desks campaign. How about you put that effort into helping the kids here in the US who don't have parents or their parents are in the military and cold use a new coat or pair of jeans? Silly me, it is much better to squander resources in a third world dump; it makes a better media tale.

Larry, I feel the same about cell phones the way you do about guns. There are more cell phone related car wrecks and deaths in one day then gun shot deaths.People who buy handguns are put through a backround check that is true, but you failed to report on how many of the back round checks were turned down. You also failed to report that the 8 people whorescued the three children from the over turned car in the water. It is reported that a man pulled his weapon and shot out a window in order to save the children. One more thing, how about raising money for the millions of people in the USA that have nothing. Charity begins at home.

Oh My! Where do I start??? I can only fire one gun at a time?? I have 2 hands. crime is down 6%, that's because the criminals know more people are defending themselve because more guns are in the hands of "non-criminals"!! I hunt small game, big game and fowl to put food on the table. That requires a different gun for each food group, 3 THREE!! And Larry, I take offense to you saying because I have more than one gun so I can kill more people. Larry, LARRY!! I didn't buy my guns to kill people. Do you feel threatened??

How many of these guns are being bought by all the returning Iraq veterans? For the first time in history, our vets are being given psychotic drugs. Many vets are returning addicted to drugs, with PTSD, and the first thing they do is run to the gun store. This is a huge danger to their families, their towns, and every American citizen. The "Rainier shooter" is an example, a tragedy which happens daily in USA. The documentary "Wounded Platoon" says it all. Our vets need help, not guns.

I, a liberal, own many firearms and would never use them to harm anybody, and I do not need them for self protection. That is what women and men in uniform are for. Be Fair. Demonizing gun ownership is akin to assuming that the sports car I own will used to put other motorists in danger, or that the alcohol in my kitchen cupboard makes me a date rapist. I get the impression that Lawrence feels uneasy about someone who owns a pistol, and that the only conclusion in his mind is that they have it to end life. When you make your way from your breakfast table to the transit car that takes you to the studio...you could not fathom getting there with a revolver in your jacket pocket. But here where I live in rural America, our guns are not simple instruments of death. They bring life with the nutrition we receive from animals that are treated with dignity...and for the livestock that wander out from the range into traffic, or are mortally wounded by a fall into an irrigation canal...these weapons undoubtedly are tools of mercy. I see it can be easy to make absolutions about gun ownership when your exposure to them orbits the latest headlines involving homicide. The majority of us have not earned your contempt for individuals who buy guns.

Normally I like to reference you as Larry but today I think I will reference you as "Dingle Berry". With the gun sales for this year, did you include the 200+ that our government gave to Mexico. OH, Wait!! those were illegal! never mind. I live just down the street from a gun manufacturing company and one of the workers there told me that they just received a special order for 2000+ special shotguns that will be used by the IRS. Hey, I know lets only lets government officials or the military have guns. Then we could be like Iraq or Iran.

Here is another question for you "Dingle Berry". You state that those with guns can just go kill anybody they like. Shame on you for being so stupid. Its just as easy to kill someone with a car. I would bet your job against mine that more people are killed in car accidents than by guns here in the USA. I bet more are killed by Drunk drivers than by guns. Furthermore, very few killings with guns are done with legally obtained guns.

What would stupid do without you?

At least this is an industry not impacted by the Obama's. Lawrence O'Donnell honestly did not lived in any country gun is illegal to own, say, if you like socialist society "gun free zone", why doesn't he go over to North Korea? Cause according to him, socialist society should be the heaven. How many times did he even go over to North Korea as an visitor? Guns are the only thing between freedom and Tyranny. When the Jews give up guns, Nazi's came along, when the American pick up guns, British went back home.

Gun shop are part of retail sales anyway, whether you sale guns, or flowers, you both have to pay taxes, both have chain of logistic support need to be in place, that means Job! At least the people work in this industry have Jobs! Better than the people who do not work at all and ask for hand out all the time!

Oh my goodness. That piece really hit a nerve in some people. I personally do not own any guns (and really have no desire to do so), but I live in a community that hunts and just about everyone I know owns them. Many families who hunt have multiple guns for the mulitple family members that go out and hunt at the same time. To put all of those gun sales on paranoia does seem unfair. There are probably some paranoid individuals out there with 2012 a reality now (and those Mayan prophecies so publicized). However, in all likelihood, 98% of those gun sales were due to collectors, gun updates (gun technology changes just like all other technology) or the addition of hunters to the family. I also know people who own guns for protection. It would have been more instructive to put together some data of the kinds and amounts of guns that were purchased.