| With April closing with another very strong month of gun and ammunition sales, the industry is quietly wondering what might lie ahead. Will May continue the trends? Will the month match, or even exceed, the 69.1 percent increases of April 2020 over April 2019?
Hard to say, although it’s not difficult to say that ammunition and certain types of firearms that use those calibers are still flying off retail shelves. If, that is, the retailer actually has some of those left on their shelves.
The glut of firearms, especially the deeply-discounted AR style rifles, is over. A check of stores around the country over the past week and weekend, has made it obvious that, Canadian governmental officials aside, everyone else has recognized the MSR as the go-to gun should you need to, well, go to a gun.
Likewise, PDWs are moving briskly into -and through- sales channels. Ruger affirmed that with an earnings conference call in which CEO Chris Killoy said that Ruger’s new Charger pistol in 9mm was part of the new products making up 20% of the company’s very strong first quarter 2020 sales.
It’s also worth noticing that the sales were trending upward before the Coronavirus rush.
| Strong sales in smaller personal defense style guns, like the Ruger Charger in 9mm have helped fuel extremely strong gun sales before -and throughout- the Coronavirus pandemic. Jim Shepherd/OWDN photo. |
There’s no reason to doubt the NSSF’s Mark Oliva’s telling Fox Business “This shows us there is continued appetite among Americans to be able to provide for their own safety during times of uncertainty. These are buyers who have witnessed their governments empty prisons…Police departments are stretched beyond capacity in many cases. Law-abiding Americans recognize this and are exercising their right to own a gun and defend themselves and their loved ones.”
It’s very obvious that people are still very concerned about security issues. The uncertainty that has accompanied the coronavirus lockdowns and now amped up due to the somewhat haphazard reopening of most of the country have made people very nervous. And that nervousness has been reflected in the shortages of first aid supplies, pantry staples, and, yes, guns and ammunition.
Motivated by the problem of state-government mandated shutdowns of gun sales and recognizing the strain of the record NICS demands, a group of United States Senators led by Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), sent a letter to the FBI and ATF asking for “additional information on the impact the coronavirus has had on your agencies and the firearms transfer process so that we have a clearer picture on where thing stand and how we can better assist through the legislative and appropriations process.”
In other words, we’ve given you the money to “Fix NICS” and we hope you’ve taken advantage of that funding -and not played a slowdown game with consumers. The letter reminds the agencies that “Any unreasonable and unnecessary delay beyond the three business days unlawfully impedes the exercise of a person’s fundamental constitutional right.”
The letter also recognizes that the compliance with that regulation has fallen below 90% and resulted in a “significant increase in the number of NICS checks that have been placed into delayed status.”
The letter also recognizes some special challenges caused by the coronavirus, from problems with renewing drivers licenses (required identification for transfers) to a potential lack of clarity when it comes to communicating information on potential problems to FFLs.
As we see the majority of states reopening this week, it’s likely the run will continue. Whatever the result, we’ll keep you posted. |
