We don’t expect a collapse, we expect organic growth that isn’t all fear-driven. We are likely to see the market normalize, which is better for the industry long term. It is hard to respond to constant spikes. Slow and steady wins the race.
Lawrence Keane
Senior vice president, government and public affairs
National Shooting Sports Foundation
January 20, 2017
Though champion of gun rights, President Trump could jam firearm sales
[I understand I’m not exactly normal but my purchases pretty much stopped after the election. I have lots of stockpiled ammunition and components that I’m going to “burn” through before I make many more purchases. Still, it’s good to hear a subject matter expert believes there won’t be an industry crash.—Joe]
Keep introducing new shooters to our sport and everything will work out fine.
Our steel plate matches are set up so a newbie can have just as an enjoyable time as the guys with the NASCAR shirts.
But can they have as much fun as the guys with the “President’s Hundred” patches?
🙂
Sure and they will always be impressed when they know what that means!
That’s more impressive!
I don’t know. For us “normal” gun folks of Gun Culture 1.0 and 2.0, perhaps our purchases will slow down a bit – although if ammo goes down in price, it’s likely to see purchase volume increase there.
But once the Trump death squads start patrolling and the cattle cars full of liberals start rolling to the concentration camps, I’m sure the panic-buying will kick in on the other side, initiating Gun Culture 3.0. 🙂
If my business is any indication (yeah, that’s a stretch) then the gun consumer mood turned a half a year ago or more. We hear much less “get ’em while you can” and what’s left is genuine interest in shooting and in setting up that next rifle.
Sales have been steady. This is in contrast to previous elections that resulted in huge spikes and valleys.
As always; having place to shoot is a critical issue. Unless you want to drive 45 minutes one way, the only places to shoot are those little nooks you can find here and there on little pieces of land that no one cares about for the moment. I find one nice place, it gets shut down. Find another, someone buys it and builds a house on it. Find another, and bunch of other people end up shooting there and turning it into a garbage dump, it gets shut down, etc. Otherwise it’s a long drive and thus, essentially, a whole day.
And so there’s a BIG disparity between one’s “vision” of owning a new gun and freely using it in some nice setting, and the reality of actually getting out to use it.
It’s like the new car commercial, showing the lone car tearing through that lonely highway on the coast somewhere, on a georgeous day, verses the reality of the commuter hour traffic jam. Also I don’t know which is worse; being occausted on public land by a pissed-off gun hater, or being nitpicked by a self-appointed range NAZI at a public gun range because I drove on the wrong patch of grass or something.
If more people could go out and shoot, without the feeling that they have to “get away with something” in the process, and without trashing the place they’re shooting on, then I think we’d be a whole lot better off as an industry, and as a freedom movement.
There just aren’t enough places to shoot.
Maybe that’s the next step we (as gun owners) need to be focusing on; building places to shoot AT, as opposed to having things to shoot.
I’m lucky in that I can shoot in my back yard. One good argument for the Hearing Protection Act is that it will make this easier.
This.
Local, local,local.
Widespread use of suppressors would help, since noise reduction benefits range location in built-up areas. So would local distributors of the heavy stuff (ammo, bullets, etc.) because a fork-liftable pallet or two by truck freight is cheaper shipping than two hundred 40 lb boxes by UPS, not to mention the hazmat fees.
Expect to see a surge in ammo purchases in California to avoid the 2018 implementation of ammo permits..
Strangely, November NICS checks were still high.
The cost of ammo and range time is prohibitive to the shooting of my guns. Were the costs this high and I just starting, I’d never start. I still have boxes of Blazer 9mm bought at less than 8 cents per round over a decade ago, so I can go shooting every once in a while, but the cost is now just shy of 25 cents per round for bulk 9mm.
The sport of firearms and the exercise of keeping and bearing arms is becoming an elite activity, due to cost.
If I am reusing my brass then my reloading cost for .40 S&W is about $0.14/round for cheap bullets. 9mm would be a little less.
Sacrifice some TV time, or etc., and cast some bullets. That doesn’t necessarily inspire newbies to get into shooting however, thinking of having to invest in casting, sizing and reloading equipment, the space to do it, and then climbing the learning curve.
Nonetheless, when I took my newbie sister and her son out shooting a couple years ago, we started in my garage casting lead, went upstairs to assemble cartridges, did some in-home gun handling safety briefing, then we went out and did some shooting. They got to experience all the major steps, with the obvious understanding that one can buy ready-made ammo in a pinch.
If .22 became reasonably priced, I would buy several cases. Otherwise a case each of 9/.45/5.56 during summer will be it.
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