Sales of guns and ammo are losing steam after a frenzied run-up sparked by fears of greater restrictions in the wake of the Newtown shooting and other massacres.
Background checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, considered to be the most accurate means of tracking gun sales, plunged by a third in January compared to the year before. There were about 1.66 million background checks last month, and nearly 2.5 million in January the year before.
In the past two years, gun shop owners and consumers have complained of ammunition shortages and a dearth in fast-selling semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines, even as manufacturing ramped up.
But the shortage appears to be over. "Retail inventories, which had been in short supply last spring, have largely returned to normal now," wrote Rommel Dionisio, a gun industry analyst for Wedbush, in a recent report.
"Monthly comparisons have recently turned sharply negative, a trend we expect to last through at least May or June 2014," Dionisio wrote.
Dionisio said the "feared tightening of gun control legislation," which was the initial motivation for buying up guns and ammo at such a frenetic pace, has subsided.
And so we're returning to equilibrium in most parts of the market.
ReplyDeleteStill little to no .22 lr to be found.
Don't get too excited for that "plummet"--everyone knew that the spike would eventually taper off or plunge back to normal.
"Though gun sales have dropped from their peak last year, they're still outperforming monthly sales that preceded Obama's reelection, said Lawrence Keane, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry group based in Newtown.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the tally of 1.66 million gun sales in January, 2014 is significantly higher than the 1.38 million sold in January, 2012."
Maybe I can actually find some .22LR sometime in the future then. Strangely enough, I had the biggest problem getting a bolt action rifle I had been looking for, ended up getting it shipped in from Omaha, while my AR was right on the shelf waiting when I stopped by the store.
As the article states, the only thing plunging is the surge. Its still higher than it was. One could think of it as an economic stimulus on the President's part.
Weird about the bolt action. Just goes to show how skewed the market still is while it's still settling to an equilibrium.
DeleteWell, 1.66 million sales is a good baseline. If it holds, that's around 20 million guns sold in a year. That doesn't include all the private sales. The more guns in private hands, the harder it is to make the real goal of gun control succeed.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Are you going to take guns against gun controllers?
DeleteWell, Mikeb, all your side has to do in order to keep gun purchase rates on the decline is back off from the push for more oppressive gun laws.
ReplyDeleteHint: saying that half of American gun owners should be disarmed is probably not the way to do that.
Oh, about these "plunging" gun sales (excerpt):
ReplyDeleteRecord U.S. Gun Production as Obama ‘Demonized’ on Issue
U.S. gun makers led by Sturm Ruger & Co. and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (SWHC) churned out a record number of firearms in 2012, government data show, continuing a trend of robust production during Democratic presidencies.
More than 8.57 million guns were produced in 2012, up 31 percent from 6.54 million in 2011, according to data released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which has been tracking the statistics since 1986.
Almost as many guns -- 26.1 million -- were produced during Democrat Barack Obama’s first term as president as during the entire eight-year presidency of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, the ATF data show.
. . .
Guess we know how to "stimulate" any industry now--just have a Democrat try to ban it.
Oops--forgot the link. Sorry. Here it is.
Delete