[WSJ] The ‘Trump Slump’: With a Friend in the White House, Gun Sales Sag

Interesting article. It seems to me that IF anti-gun folks believe that guns kill people, and IF those same anti-gun activists believe we should limit and/or otherwise minimize the number of guns in the U.S., THEN anti-gun folks should want to keep gun-friendly Republicans in the White House indefinitely as a sure-fire method of gun control.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-tr...d-in-the-white-house-gun-sales-sag-1535640346

The ‘Trump Slump’: With a Friend in the White House, Gun Sales Sag
The industry leaned heavily on panic over gun control to drive sales, especially during the Obama administration; AR-15 seeks a reboot

By
Zusha Elinson and
Cameron McWhirter
Aug. 30, 2018 10:45 a.m. ET

DALLAS—President Trump spoke to a cheering crowd at the National Rifle Association’s annual conference in May, saying gun owners had no stronger ally than the president and the Republican majority in Congress.

For gun makers, it turns out, this is a mixed blessing.

Since Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory, sales have slowed, particularly for the top-selling AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, so much that gun executives have termed it the “Trump slump.” An industry that capitalized on fear of gun control to drive sales during Democratic administrations is finding it is hard to turn out buyers when those concerns dissipate.

“Sales have normalized because you don’t have the fear-based market,” said Mark Eliason, vice president of sales and marketing at Windham Weaponry, a Maine gun maker.

Mark Kresser, former chief executive of gun maker Taurus Holdings Inc., said the AR-15 boom probably won’t return absent another political shift. “The shine is coming off the nickel,” he said.

Smith & Wesson parent company American Outdoor Brands Corp. said falling demand for its AR-style rifles caused revenue from long guns to fall 50% to $90 million for the year ended April 30, compared with the previous fiscal yearSturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. reported a 13.5% drop in firearms net sales for the first six months of the year compared with a year earlier. The company doesn’t break down sales by type of firearms, but it sells AR-15-style rifles.

With no available industrywide sales data, background checks provide a rough measure of the decline in overall firearm sales. The checks fell 11% in 2017 from a record in 2016, according to an analysis of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry group. That excludes checks for concealed weapons and other permits not related to gun purchases.

Remington Outdoor Co. filed for bankruptcy in March and emerged two months later. It is the oldest U.S. gun maker, founded in 1816, and makes AR-style rifles under its Bushmaster and DPMS Panther Arms brands.

Gun makers are now seeking to counter slumping sales of the rapid-fire weapon, which played a big part in reviving the U.S. gun industry. At the NRA’s spring convention in Dallas, they offered new colors, sizes and models. Windham Weaponry offered two AR-style rifles in new calibers, one designed for hunting and another for long-range sharpshooting.
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more at the link

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