NRA attorney explains why Obama is 'the gun salesman of the decade'
US President Barack Obama delivers a prime time address from the White House on September 10, 2014 in Washington, DC (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

An attorney for the National Rifle Association explained to Ora.TV host Larry King on Thursday why attempts to impose gun regulation only increases the demand for firearms.


"President Obama is the gun salesman of the decade," Chuck Michel said. "His laws have caused people to go out and buy guns in record numbers."

"How so?" King asked.

"When you threaten to ban a gun, that causes a rush on those guns," Michel explained. "There's more guns being sold in California and the country the last few years than there's ever been before. There's been a huge increase in demand. So those gun companies are making money."

Michel did not specify a particular piece of legislation, but he also dismissed the idea of universal firearm background checks, which has enjoyed broad public support, particularly following the December 2012 mass shooting attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.

"[Gun safety laws are] based on a false premise that somehow, if you pass a law, the bad guys won't be able to get guns," he told Kings. "All that really happens -- especially in California -- is that people become accidental felons because the law becomes so complicated, they don't know what's legal and what's not."

The Portland Oregonian reported on Wednesday that a bill expanding background checks on gun sales in Oregon was pushed through by a state Senate committee. Eleven other states mandate such checks on nearly all firearm sales.

Watch King's program, as posted by Ora.TV on Thursday, below.