The National Shooting Sports Federation reports that February 2011 sales have surged 13.6 percent over last Feb’s stats. That’s a leap in National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) enquiries from 848,036 to 963,746. OK, stat-heads, what gives?

All across the industry we’re hearing that sales are booming. ArmaLite’s added an hour at the end and the beginning of its production shifts. Smith & Wesson’s handgun sales are up a whacking great 47.9 percent for the third financial quarter, and still they don’t habe enough guns to go ’round. Gun stores are jammed.

As gun-grabbing fever’s only reared its ugly head in the last 36 hours, there’s some other dynamic at work. Austerity boredom? Falling prices (msrps are as soft as a Ritz Carlton pillow)? Liberalized CCW permitting process? All of the above?

Whatever. Happy days are here again for the firearms industry. And now that the ATF has stopped supplying drug cartels with weapons, the U.S. firearms industry can resume selling them weapons through official channels. Oh wait; they already are. Never mind.

 

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19 COMMENTS

  1. Hmmm, let me count the ways:
    1) the Obama administration
    2) a bad economy and high inflation (I’m looking at you, Bernanke)
    3) multiple natural disasters around the world increase thoughts of preparedness
    4) the Tucson shooting reinvigorated the gun grabbers
    5) the Obama administration
    6) increased industry competition resulting in more choices at lower prices

    Oh, and 7) the Obama administration

    • So you’re saying the Obama administration is a good thing. At least for gun manufacturers and retailers.

      • I’m saying it’s the best thing for industry sales since…probably the Clinton administration. But even then, I don’t remember anything like this (I don’t work in the industry at all). Think back to just after then inauguration and for the next almost two years when it was damned hard to get a lot of calibers of ammo.

  2. I don’t know why sales are up, but I’m absolutely freakin’ positive that it has nothing to do with the skanks in that commercial. Holy crap! I almost gave up my guns — and my lunch.

    • I just watched the actual video. I’m pretty sure skank is too nice a description for that pack of Schnauzers.

      • If you listened carefully, you’d hear that the…um…ladies in that video are members of a roller derby team. As (bad) luck would have it, I played a party the other night for not one but TWO roller derby teams. As I continue to look for some mental floss, here’s a video of the late, great Jim Croce, singing his Roller Derby Queen.

        • Ah, Brad, that’s what the glamorous life of a musician is all about . . . living la vida loca. One of these days I’ll tell you about the Rabinowitz bar mitzvah. It was legendary. Really. Just ask either of the survivors.

      • 2yellowdogs, I think that Farago has Schnauzers, and none of them look like those heifers in the commercial.

  3. it seems real clear now that govt spending at all levels has hit the wall. cities in Michigan are disbanding their police forces and turning to state and county
    for help. just google “police layoffs” . Why ? Because all the cities, all the counties , and almost all the states are in very serious hock financial. The media can sing the “all is calm ” refrain, but a lot of people are getting the feeling there is BIG financial trouble brewing.
    That kind of trouble brings with it other risks. We won’t be gardening for a living, but there could be some serious disorder.

  5. Only in America can a bunch of overweight, out of shape, unattractive women be used as models for anything except a weight loss clinic.

  6. I hope I not being mean, but what’s up with the fat chicks. I’m disappointed RF, you usually have some fine hotties and you let us all down with the heifer sisters.

  7. OK, I am going to do something radical here, even though I am a day(or so) late. I am going to add an answer to the actual question posted.

    Iowa now has concealed carry, and Arizona now has constitutional carry. Wyoming had loosened their laws from a ‘may-issue’ state to a ‘shall-issue’ state, and are now turning into a constitutional carry state here shortly. How many other states are loosening up their stances on gun possession? And of course, The Obama Administration.

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