US gun makers battle 'Trump slump' as sales fall compared to 2016

For one of America’s largest gun manufacturers, the “Trump slump” in sales has meant a nearly $100m fall in firearms revenue compared with the same quarter last year.

American Outdoor Brands, the rebranded name of historic gun company Smith & Wesson, reported a 48.5% decrease in firearms revenue compared with the same quarter last year, when many Americans believed Hillary Clinton, a supporter of gun control, would be elected president.

Shipments of long guns were down 57% in the latest quarter, president and chief executive James Debney said in an earnings call on Thursday. The long gun category includes the military-style rifles often targeted by gun control campaigners in the wake of mass shootings. Shipments of handguns were down nearly 35%. Overall, the company’s revenue dropped nearly 40% compared with the same quarter last year, according to chief financial officer Jeff Buchanan.

In the perverse dynamics of the firearms market, politicians who threaten to ban guns are very good for the industry while politicians who oppose gun control, like Donald Trump, provide no boost. Barack Obama, who reacted with grief and outrage to a 2012 mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut that left 20 children and six adults dead, was dubbed the “best gun salesman on the planet”.

Trump, who told members of the National Rifle Association, “You came through for me and I am going to come through for you”, has produced only a eponymous “slump”.

Debney did highlight some areas of potential growth, including the potential for “favorable changes in legislation” when it comes to gun silencers.

The NRA is pushing to de-regulate silencers, which muffle or suppress the sound of gunshots, arguing that they should be more widely used by shooting sports enthusiasts to protect against hearing loss. Silencers are currently strictly tracked, taxed and regulated under federal law.

NRA-backed federal legislation, including a bill called the Hearing Protection Act, would remove silencers from the category of most dangerous, tightly regulated weapons.

Gun control groups fiercely oppose the measure, raising concerns about whether silencers would be used in mass shootings and arguing that their broader use could make it harder for law enforcement to do their jobs

John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement: “With gun sales dropping steeply, it’s not surprising the NRA leadership and its allies in Congress want to make it easier for gun companies to sell silencers. This legislation would put gun company profits over public safety.”

American Outdoor Brands recently acquired Gemtech, a silencer-manufacturing company.

Debney said: “We view this acquisition as somewhat opportunistic, allowing us to enter the suppressor category prior to the potential favorable changes in legislation and at a time when the market is particularly soft.”

Stock prices for Sturm Ruger and American Outdoor Brands dropped sharply after election day. Cabela’s, an outdoor retailer that sells firearms, reported a 9% drop in store sales in its second quarter and blamed the election result. Cabela’s acknowledged that the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June 2016 – in which 49 people died – drove sales up compared with this year.

High-profile acts of gun violence typically prompt increased gun sales as Democratic lawmakers push for gun control reform. But a June shooting attack on Republican members of Congress at baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, which left Steve Scalise seriously injured, faded quickly from the headlines and prompted no major push for gun control laws.

Despite weaker gun sales compared with 2016, America’s gun companies are not doing poorly when compared with sales numbers from years before that.

“Reports of the industry’s pending demise are greatly exaggerated,” Mike Bazinet, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, wrote in an email in August.

“2017 is still a very strong year by historic standards and, in fact, we are on track to see the second or third highest year since the [background check] system began.”