Smith & Wesson: Americans are buying fewer guns
Source: CNN
Smith & Wesson posted disappointing earnings and a weak forecast for one simple reason: Americans are buying fewer guns.
Shares of the gunmaker plunged 12% in premarket trading Friday as it dawned on investors that the once high-flying gun industry is coming down to Earth.
shares dropped more than 12% before the bell
The gun industry has experienced an intense run-up in demand over the last couple years, fueled by concerns of more rigorous gun restrictions in the wake of President Obama's reelection and a series of mass shootings including the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Conn.
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/20/news/companies/smith-wesson-earnings/
Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)Just an observation.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)My wife has said this on many occasions when there's a mass murder/suicide. Just kill yourself and leave everybody else out of it.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)Since I have no clue what you're talking about.
hack89
(39,171 posts)Last edited Mon Jun 23, 2014, 11:08 AM - Edit history (1)
Because of gun related violence. Since gun deaths have been steadily decreasing while the population has been increasing, your math is doesn't work.
I know you didn't really mean what you said - gun discussions are driven by snark and emotions where rational thought sometimes takes a back seat. I just contributed some snark of my own.
Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)First of all, snark is supposed to be amusing. So there's that.
The second is the fact that gun deaths aren't declining. Since the late 1990's (after the spike in homicides earlier in the decade) the rate of gun deaths in the U.S. settled back into a persistent rate of about 10.3 per 100,000 in population. The raw number of gun deaths has actually increased -- which is why even with a growing population, the rate has remained around 10.3.
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states (note that the figures come from the CDC).
So actually, the math works pretty well.
hack89
(39,171 posts)gun homicides, handgun homicides, long gun homicides, gun accidents, all down.
Long gun suicides steady
Handgun suicides, gun suicides (other), gun homicides (other) up
What you have pointed out is a mental health issue - if suicide rates had fallen the same as homicides and accidents, the overall rate would be much lower. Remember that two thirds of gun deaths are suicides.
Are you saying that their key market is suicide prone? Maybe I misunderstood your point.
Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)who is washing what's left of their kid's cerebral cortex off his bedroom wall will take great comfort in knowing that the rate of long gun homicides has gone down.
hack89
(39,171 posts)But that's ok.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)--David Niven
Great book
Aristus
(66,487 posts)down the Rambo rhetoric for once. Sounds like the arms-dealers' branding is being damaged due to their products doing exactly what they were designed to do...
hack89
(39,171 posts)which means that people are buying for self defense. Which means you will see more and not less Rambo rhetoric. Which is a shame.
valerief
(53,235 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)rifle sales should continue to decline.
sakabatou
(42,189 posts)Usually a lot of people panic-buy after one.
former9thward
(32,111 posts)The last gun I bought was about 20 years ago. I know I will never buy another gun for the rest of my life. At some point the market gets saturated.
Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)Has to do his own loads because they stopped manufacturing that particular ammo about twenty years ago. But the rifle is in perfectly good working order.
I think most of the sales in the last twenty years have been people who already owned one firearm, going out and purchasing their second, third, fourth...
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Costs about 20 bucks every time I fire it, but hey, it's a museum piece you can still take a deer with.
(they stopped making ammo for it in the 20's, and British .303 doesn't fit.)
Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)With a price per round that high, it definitely encourages good marksmanship!
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)I don't go with people who do, either. Too easy to have a fuckup. Hunting is Serious Business(TM), and I don't have time to be managing other people's recreational inebriation at the same time.
Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)Is that like "sort of pregnant"? We typically have a a little wine with dinner (my in-laws are Italian), and then we do "shooters for the shooter" doing a shot for whomever got a deer that day.
I suppose that sounds like a lot if you're used to none at all, but it's really not a rowdy camp in the least. Everyone is in the bunk by 9:30.
MillennialDem
(2,367 posts)I get that people who are 40 or older are probably relatively less likely to buy a gun. Those 40 and up probably already have a gun if they're ever going to own one. The prime market for new gun buyers would be those 18-34 or so (ie Millennials) and there are more 18-34 year olds now than there were 20 years ago. Sure some of people my age and younger will buy used guns or get inherited/gifted guns, but wasn't that the case 20 years ago too?
Of course this discounts collectors and those gun buyers who need to have the latest and greatest model.
former9thward
(32,111 posts)But they are not as big as the 'baby-boom' generation which I think is saturated. This is problem not only for gun manufacturers but other products which tend to last a long time like houses.
MillennialDem
(2,367 posts)plurality of the electorate in 2016 or 2020.
Cosmocat
(14,579 posts)my inlaws, real good people, but NRA card carrying rural types, when Sandy Hook hit were all agitated that there was going to be all this new gun legislation and went out and got AR-15s, all of them, cause in their minds it was going to be this great thing that would soon lose the right to have, even if they probably were never going to go out and get one before Sandy Hook.
Combine this with the usual bump in sales with a democratic president, and it is more like people going to a food bar and gourging themselves to the point where they can't eat any more.
NickB79
(19,277 posts)Purely anecdotal, but most of my coworkers who are 20-30 yr old are gravitating towards semi-automatic rifles instead of "old-fashioned" bolt actions, pumps ore lever actions. And since I work in a factory located in the Midwest, staffed largely by guys with high school diplomas, virtually everyone there owns guns, hunts, etc.
A gun purchased 20 years ago might be perfectly serviceable if properly cared for, but when it's owner decides to sell it, the younger generation looking for new guns of their own will turn up their noses at it in favor of an AR or AK variant because they've become convinced that you can't be a bad-ass without a fully tricked out tactical weapons system. The used gun racks at Cabela's are filled with bolt action deer rifles gathering dust.
I've literally seen a group of guys in their mid-20's laugh at by a friend who brought his dad's old .30-30 lever action rifle to the shooting range when they were all carrying new, semi-auto guns. He looked really uncomfortable, and I noticed no one shot the .30-30 the entire time they were there. It's almost like a form of peer pressure among the younger gun owning crowd at work.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)or the gun manufacturers will start using planned obsolescence in gun manufacturing. (I wonder what part of a gun would be okay to 'break' after 5 years?)
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Walmart used to be the largest gun sellers in the USA.
Are they still selling guns online or did that stop last year?
former9thward
(32,111 posts)A gun can be ordered online but the gun will go to a FFL holder. You have to physically go to the FFL holder and get a background check before picking it up.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)EX500rider
(10,884 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)just not a dealer
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)have been having record profits - you know, the annual "buy all your guns now before Obama bans them" rush?
ChazInAz
(2,575 posts)For mass-produced items, the prices of firearms are way too high.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Sales are slipping!
You push your consumers to buy and buy and buy, but unless you're selling something that is consumed, eventually you hit market saturation. My question would be, 'How are ammunition sales doing?'
hack89
(39,171 posts)CreekDog
(46,192 posts)clever.
noted.
hack89
(39,171 posts)read the OP - it even says so.
CreekDog
(46,192 posts)you're just attempting to bash her from the right as often as you can in this thread.
you think you're clever.
hack89
(39,171 posts)Come on now, you are smarter than this. You know that an AWB was DiFi pet project.
broadcaster75201
(387 posts)nt
hack89
(39,171 posts)so rifle sales are down and handgun sales are up.
spin
(17,493 posts)a firearm bought one or more in the last couple of years.
After the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy there was a lot of talk about passing strong gun control including another assault weapons ban.
The sale of firearms and ammo absolutely skyrocketed at that point. There were long lines at gun shows and the shelves were bare in gun stores. You had to get on a waiting list to buy many common firearms and ammo.
Obviously many people were concerned that draconian gun laws would pass through Congress and be signed by the President.
Fortunately I predicted that strong gun control laws would never pass in a Republican control House. I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised when they couldn't even pass in a Democratically controlled Senate.
Therefore I didn't buy any new firearms at that time. The prices were too inflated because of the demand. In a year or so, many of these firearms will be a great bargain when the owners who rarely use them will be willing to sell them. I may decide to buy some at that time.
PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)Be afraid, buy a Gun.
spin
(17,493 posts)warrior1
(12,325 posts)AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Someone had to say it.
PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)dad loves his and then the M400 zzzz brother nah he built his own AR-15. much heavier. doesn't feel like a toy gun.. brother is also a better teacher on how to shoot guns.. like don't aim at anything you don't intend to kill. Which he scolded me once for doing. not with the AR-15
So what does dad do when he gets his M400 (AR-15) he aims it at my brother. Oh hello X_X I guess my brother figured out what dad is. There's a name for them. Tact tard Wannbe Soldier X_X hey dad was in the national guard but I don't wanna be anywhere near him when he's shooting..
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)For pistols, my preference is Springfield. Rifles... anything but Olympic Arms. Every fifth employee on their assembly line is actually an angry beaver.
Llewlladdwr
(2,165 posts)PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)have too many guns they can't afford more..
frylock
(34,825 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)the panic buying for rifles is over but handgun sales are steadily increasing. I really question the notion that there are fewer and fewer gun owners.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Or vice-versa.
Am I implying that dumber people are obsessed with guns?
You bet your ass I am.
Please alert, gungeoneers.
hack89
(39,171 posts)Before offering your opinion, perhaps you should lay off judging other people's intelligence. Your track record is certainly not Mensa quality.
Union Scribe
(7,099 posts)pediatricmedic
(397 posts)Scare tactics have worked quite well to keep sales up.
SkatmanRoth
(843 posts)The purchase of bullets is still outstripping production. Even with a three box per person limit, it is still impossible to find 22 long rifle. For the folks that hand load, the components for .45 ACP are not to be found. Primers are at a premium.
Paladin
(28,280 posts)sweetapogee
(1,168 posts)That the smokeless powders used by all pistol and shotgun handloaders has been, and still is in very high demand and hence not easy to buy. Not available.
Wolf Frankula
(3,602 posts)It is in excellent shape and I don't need another pistol. The Wife has a vintage 1960s Walther. Our rifle is older than I am and is in excellent shape. Our newest weapon, (now 20 years old) is a reproduction matchlock musket. We don't need any more guns.
Sorry S&W, shan't be a customer any time soon.
Wolf
ileus
(15,396 posts)650 for a 5" poly gun is just dumb. I don't want to shell out 650 bucks then turn around and spend 450 on an optic.
Now if they'd come down 100 bucks that would be just enough motivation to pick one up.
I'm in the market for a double duty handgun, one that can be a fun target/plinker at the range and still be a good night stand pistol.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)"Obama's coming for their guns" -fear campaign....
Omaha Steve
(99,817 posts)About $850.
Gun makers need a higher wage to sell more gns. But then some say let the kids eat mac & cheese, so I can make my firearm payments.