“The sales of both guns and ammo are flying partly due to worries about economic calamity and partly because the National Rifle Association is fanning the flames of rumors that President Obama wants to confiscate guns and raise ammunition taxes by 500 percent.

Will President Obama tighten the rules on gun sales? I have my doubts. With the economy collapsing, he has bigger fish to fry. Nonetheless, if history is any guide, the NRA will constantly ring the alarm bell for the next four or eight years … and gun manufacturers will reap the benefits.”

In other words, his recommendation, and the panic buying that underlies it, are based on a deliberately manufactured rumor. Maybe that, too, has public-policy implications.