Remington Arms Bankrupt: Trump Presidency Affects Gun Sales

[_DrW]

Talk about irony: the venerable Remington Arms company has filed for bankruptcy. Remington has been a premier manufacturer of firearms for more than 200 years, and is better known for its rifles, including its AR-15 style Bushmaster, than pistols (such as the Remington version of the 1911).

Turns out that the Trump administration is seen as friendly to the NRA and the gun lobby. Gun enthusiasts are no longer as concerned as they were during the Obama administration about stocking up against the day when they believe their rights to buy or own another gun might be somehow curtained.

Fact is that gun sales in the US have been down substantially since Trump took office. The more than adequate inventory of guns in the US is on display on the internet or at any local gun show. It seems at times as if the gun market in the US is becoming saturated.

Because they are so seldom used, guns don't wear out like many other consumer goods*. Many people (myself included) tend to keep the old ones when buying a new one. In 2015, an ATF report estimated that there were 40 million more guns in the US then there were people (317 million people and 357 million guns). With a gun for every man, woman and child in the US, as well as 40 million spares, it hardly seems as if the right to own guns in America is in being curtailed in any way.

The problem now is what gun makers have been doing to boost sales. And that is to offer macho-man military style rifles. These weapons, which were designed to efficiently kill human beings, have become the new status symbol among enthusiasts and at the gun range.

The US Government has banned fully automatic weapons, as well as semi-automatics with the three shot burst mode (three rounds fired with one trigger pull). The ban should be extended to military style rifles in general as well as large capacity magazines for any weapon. Legacy owners of AR-15 or other military style rifles should be required to have a special permit. This would be no more intrusive to gun rights than a permit to carry a concealed weapon. This small concession would go a long way to curtailing mass shootings.

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*As an illustration of what the service life of a good gun can be, I recently showed up at a concealed carry permit class with my 50+ year old Sturm Ruger. Some of the other students with their new Glocks and Sigs seemed amused at the old man with his old gun. Amusement waned when that old gun put all 25 of the required 25 rounds to be fired into the 10-ring, while their newer Glocks and Sigs seemed to have a hard time finding the 10 ring at all (and many of their rounds missed the target completely - not due entirely to the weapon, I might add).