Being a long time gun enthusiast I have to say the last six years has to of been some of the most explosive growth in the firearm industry that I have experienced in all of my 32 years of life. The leaps and bounds made in such a short period of time is great for companies looking for a quick leg up but, is there a long term plan? Looking at the constantly closing local gun shops just in my area that were doing great while President Obama was in office a majority of them have or are one bad month of sales away from closing theirs. While I was helping some of my store owner friends at gun shows just a couple of years ago it was to the point people would buy anything at any price that was written on the sticker. Nowadays, it is the direct opposite all those shocking sticker prices have been slashed several times in some cases below actual cost just to free up some purchasing power funds for what is hot this month.
They had become so accustomed to the over year long record breaking firearm selling records under the previous administration that the thought of the seemingly never ending well would dry up never occurred to them. What the consumers did when they panic bought anything and everything for the fear of not knowing if they would get the chance again, was create a false bubble of sales. Now, nobody twisted anybody’s arm here to open a local gun shop but people see success and want a piece of it. That is just human nature people want to do well and under the previous administration it was rather easy to sell 60-80-100+ firearms a month at a decent profit I would see it every gun show that I would help out at. However, that business plan is what I like to call a “Hot Potato” essentially you keep playing the game until its over and if you have the potato or access inventory when the music stops you take the hit. Once President Trump was elected the music stopped the panic buying spree was over and for some that ramped up inventory was stuck with a huge debt and for some that meant bankruptcy.
Another thing the panic buying has done is put tons and tons of over-priced sub-par items out into the consumers hands that should have never been there but there was a demand and they had the supply at the time. In the end we all took a chance and for the majority it did not pan out to well I wished I only knew how many of those $50-75 Magpul Pmags were bought or $1500 S&W M&P-15’s. Sadly, most of them are buried in the back of a gun safe now that production has caught up to demand to the point there is a surplus on essentially every brand part out there and better quality is to be had for that same price. We as a whole are guilty of this we all had an equal part so if you got caught holding the hot potato I would recommend holding onto it because the next election is around the corner and it will begin all over again and you have a leg up this time. Let us learn from the past and buy slowly during the non-panic mentality and help ease the numbers and rush for the next time and not create another artificial buying bubble.
