Gun Sales Slow Down Due to Trump’s Election

Conservatives and the NRA expect President Donald Trump to be good for the Second Amendment, but the latest figures show that he may not be good for the gun industry itself. According to TheStreet, American Outdoor Brands, the company formerly known as Smith & Wesson, issued an earnings report this week that cost them 6 percent in Friday’s pre-market trading.

The company revealed earnings of 66 cents per share on a total revenue haul of $233.5 million in the third-quarter announcement, a trend that could indicate a downtrend in gun sales correlating with the election of Donald Trump.

In a statement, AOB president James Debney did not connect those dots specifically.

“Toward the end of the quarter, consumer firearm purchasing began to cool — a trend that underscores the importance of remaining focused on our strategy to continue growing and balancing our business across the shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiast markets,” said Debney.

But other reports show that slowdown as well. FBI data released last month showed that January marked the second month in a row with a decline in background checks. Compared to the same time last year, the FBI ran 20% fewer checks in 2017.

Of course, this just proves what has been blindingly obvious for a long time: Barack Obama was the best gun salesman in history. Once he started ratcheting up his threatening rhetoric towards the Second Amendment, Americans started hitting up their local gun stores. By addressing a problem we didn’t have, Obama wound up making the “problem” even worse. That, by the way, is almost always the case when you go after this country’s individual freedoms.

That’s the obvious part. Here’s the hidden part: This completely undermines one of the Democrats’ biggest arguments about the NRA. For years, they’ve been telling us that our domestic security is being held hostage by this group. Republicans are beholden to the NRA and the NRA, in turn, is an arm of the gun manufacturing industry.

The truth, though, is that there’s actually nothing better for the industry than to have a threat in the White House. The NRA is, indeed, a powerful lobbying group, but their strength comes not from the gun industry – their strength comes from millions of Americans who want to protect the Second Amendment from grabby leftists.