Category: Business

Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc., Reports Record-Breaking Firearms Sales.

In case you were wondering if gun sales were having a couple of excellent months, a recent first-quarter report from Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc., gives every indication that firearm sales are as strong as ever.

According to the report, Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc., recorded a quarterly net sales of $278 million, as compared to last year’s first quarter earnings of $123.7 million—a 124.8-percent increase over last year. The firearms segment of S&W’s business—which made up the bulk of sales for the family of brands—grossed $229.9 million, a 140.9-percent increase over last year. Continue reading “”

To be honest, I didn’t know Remington had bought Barnes

Remington Agrees to Sell Ammunition Business, Including Barnes Bullets, for $65 Million

Remington filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in July. That was after a failed attempt to sell the company to the Navajo Nation and despite the biggest gun-buying boom in the history of the world. Since then, the company has been trying to sell off its various brands and operating units.

Today, the Wall Street Journal reports that . . .

Firearms maker Remington Outdoor Co. has agreed to sell its ammunition business out of bankruptcy to South Carolina-based investment firm JJE Capital Holdings LLC for $65 million plus the assumption of liabilities, subject to better offers.

The JJE offer came in the form of a stalking-horse bid, setting a floor on the sale price for Remington’s ammunition business, which the company has been marketing while in chapter 11. Remington filed for bankruptcy protection in July and has been open to selling its ammunition and firearms operations to pay off its debt.

The proposed deal outlined in papers filed Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Decatur, Ala., covers the design and manufacturing of ammunition sold under the Remington and Barnes Bullets brands and includes production facilities in Arkansas and Utah.

Continue reading “”

Brownells Donates $50,000 to CRPA for California Magazine Limit Fight

Brownells is donating $50,000 to the California Rifle & Pistol Association to help fund the fight to restore freedom and standard-capacity magazines to California gun owners.

In August, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit upheld a previous decision against California’s ban on magazines in the Duncan v. Becerra case. The panel determined a ban on magazines with capacity of over 10 rounds violates the 2nd Amendment rights of Californians.

In an effort to delay striking down California’s draconian magazine ban, the California Attorney General’s office petitioned for an en banc review of panel’s ruling, extending the struggle for California gun owners to regain their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights.

To help see that struggle through to a victorious finish, Brownells is contributing $50,000 for CRPA’s efforts to the cause.

“The California Rifle & Pistol Association Foundation is proud of the partnership with Brownells to fight for the rights of all Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” said CRPA Foundation Director of Development Rick Travis. “Brownells’ generous donation will be used 100% in the fight to see the Duncan v. Becerra case to a successful conclusion in restoring the Second Amendment in California.”

If the rulings against California’s magazine ban are upheld, they could serve as precedent in similar decisions against other similar bans enacted by anti-gun politicians in other states.

Geissele Donates 250,000 Masks for 2021 SHOT Show.

Geissele Automatics had donated a quarter million face masks for use by industry professionals attending the 2021 Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show scheduled Jan. 19 to 21 in Las Vegas, NV.

Gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic require added safety precautions, but to put the annual showcase of new firearms and gear into perspective, it attracts more than 50,000 attendees every year from dozens of nations. The 250,000 face masks will be distributed during the show, which is expected to cover 714,000 square feet of the Sands Expo Center. Continue reading “”

August Shatters Another Gun Sales Record

August 2020 saw more gun sales than any other August on record as Americans continue to rush to gun stores at a record pace.

A Washington Free Beacon analysis of FBI data released on Tuesday found a 57 percent increase in sales compared to August 2019. There were at least 1.6 million sales in August 2020. Only two previous Augusts had broken a million sales, though limitations in FBI reporting means that not every gun sale is captured in the data. August represents the sixth month in a row to set a new sales record with March seeing the most gun sales of any month in the history of the FBI background check system.

Sales thus far in 2020 have soared past previous years. Sales through the first eight months of the year are up 43 percent over the previous record.

“In 15 years of teaching firearm safety, I have never seen a higher level of interest in guns,” Rick Ector, a Detroit-based firearms instructor, told the Washington Free Beacon. “I do not need to advertise, and my phone is constantly ringing.” Continue reading “”

One of Bloomberg’s front organization’s employees simply confirms that his elitism is mirrored in its management.
It’s kind of like he specifically filtered for that with Shannon Watts et al. isn’t it?

More internal trouble at Everytown For Gun Safety

In June, Mom-At-Arms compiled all of the negative Everytown Employee reviews of the company. ”Rampant racism“, “discrimination against people of color”, “little to no transparency”, etc etc etc. Well, days ago, another employee left a review on Glassdoor:

See? They don’t care. They’re only becoming “aware” because the Black Lives Matter movement is front and center and they’re using it to their advantage in order to recruit. What a mess (and that’s a good thing for us).

The Economy Is Struggling, but Gun Sales Are Soaring

OAKMONT, Pennsylvania — Long before you find yourself standing in front of the Smoke N’ Guns shop, the delicate aroma of coffee beans and hand-rolled cigars beckons your senses as you walk along Allegheny River Boulevard.

Outside the shop, four black leather chairs spread a respectable 6 feet apart are waiting for either the overflow of customers or locals such as Marcello Frollo to hold court. He enjoys a rolled cigar along with his double espresso as he listens to the cars rumble along the brick-lined street.

Inside, the store is a visual delight, with a coffee bar and a handful of tables and chairs at the entrance. Boxes filled with the best cigars money can buy are stacked high, and an impressive walk-in humidor is designed to keep them preserved at the perfect temperature.

In the back, a balcony overlooks the rest of the store and spans its entire width. A glass display case with an array of long guns hangs along the wall. In the center, begging to be held, is a Tommy gun. Gregory “Gooch” Ionadi, the owner, waits to help you find the gun you need or want to protect yourself.

That is, if there are any left to buy.

“Prior to the COVID outbreak, President Obama was the best gun salesman we ever had,” says Ionadi. “Anytime he was going to ban this, ban that, there was a rush on gun sales. When President Trump was elected, the fear of a gun ban subsided, and sales were so flat that several gun manufacturers went out of business.”

Things changed dramatically in gun shops across the country in February, when the first concentrated COVID-19 cases in one town were reported out of New Rochelle, New York. “We made more here in … March and April than we did in the last three years,” he says. “It was crazy.” Continue reading “”

Gun sales are rising in Michigan. The buyers might surprise you

Rick Ector was teaching an eight-hour concealed pistol license course in early July, and his cellphone wouldn’t stop vibrating.

Ector had just resumed teaching in-person lessons the month before. He hadn’t advertised. But people were calling to ask about enrolling in future courses, he said.

“It’s an explosion of interest from people who want to learn about guns,” said Ector, who has worked as a firearms instructor in Detroit for 13 years. “The interest in personal protection is on a level none of us (firearm instructors) has ever seen.” Continue reading “”

Gun sales continue to surge across the Seattle-area

Background checks gun sales firearm western Washington

After an initial spike in March, western Washington firearm sales remained far higher than usual over the first half of 2020.

Some point to the pandemic, others point to protests over racial injustice as prompting waves of sales. In the end, it has local officials noticing that a lot more guns have arrived in their communities.

When a customer purchases a firearm in Washington state, they must wait 10 business days before receiving the gun. During that time, the seller submits the customer’s information to their local police department for a background check.

In the first seven months of 2020, Seattle processed 9,426 background checks for gun sales. That is already a 55% increase over the city’s average for an entire year.

Seattle is not alone. Comparing background checks, June 2020 to June 2019:

  • Kirkland saw a 145% increase.
  • Kent saw a 119% increase.
  • Redmond, a 268% increase. The last seven Junes have averaged 68 background checks. This June saw 318 background checks.

caption: The number of background checks that Western Washington police departments performed for gun sales in June 2020 and June 2019.

Don’t Replace the NRA, Reform It

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing the National Rifle Association, seeking to dissolve it over multiple incidences of fraud and mismanagement.

And the thing is, her case is pretty strong, in my opinion. Really, really strong. Wayne LaPierre has been the effective head of the NRA for decades now, and his … questionable financial decisions appear to have been made without the knowledge of the Board of Directors, who should (should) have oversight on such matters. This quote in particular jumped out at me:

Attorney General Letitia James claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday that she found financial misconduct in the millions of dollars and that it contributed to a loss of more than $64 million over a three-year period.

Let’s look at the number in context. The NRA is not the only nationwide gun rights organization. There is also the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), which specializes in targeted legal cases to advance the right to keep and bear arms, the Gun Owners Of America (GOA), which claims to be the only “no compromise” gun group out there, and also the Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA). They all do good work. The Second Amendment Foundation in particular created the legal strategy which won both DC v. Heller and Macdonald v. Chicago, two pivotal cases for American gun owners.

But as noted firearms trainer Claude Werner pointed out on Facebook, the resources all three of those organizations have at their disposal pales in comparison to what the NRA can bring to the table. Continue reading “”

July Breaks Gun Sales Record: Gun company’s earnings triple, CEO says sales ‘like nothing we’ve seen before.’

One of the country’s leading gun makers saw earnings triple as gun sales once again shattered previous records for the month of July.

July 2020 saw an estimated 1,795,602 gun sales—a new record and an increase of 133 percent over July 2019, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis of FBI data. July is the fifth consecutive month to set a gun-sales record. Chris Killoy, chief executive officer of Sturm, Ruger & Company, said the current spike in sales is unlike anything he has ever seen. The buying spree shows no signs of slowing down and heavy demand will “sustain itself” into the fall, Killoy predicted.

“Having been in this industry for 30 years, I saw the surge in 1994 before the assault weapons ban took place,” Killoy told investors on Thursday. “This is probably the strongest level of demand that I’ve seen. One of the most significant differences is how it has impacted all levels of the channel and the impact on inventory at all levels.” 

The spike in FBI background checks and coinciding earnings at the gun-industry giant indicate an explosion of new gun ownership as Americans deal with the coronavirus outbreak and national unrest. FBI background checks indicate 2020 has now seen at least 10 million guns sold—many to first-time buyers and minorities. 

Continue reading “”

We should follow Sweden’s model, ending the purposeless economic shutdowns. Common sense dictates that the best course is to continue masking where necessary, and maintaining social distancing. Meanwhile, like the Swedes, we should open our economy. And now, while we still have one to open.

One Swedish Model To Copy: No More COVID-19 Lockdowns

We’re getting an awful lot of very bad advice from public officials about how to handle the resurgent coronavirus pandemic. All of a sudden, we’re told, we must lock down the economy again, for our own good. Common sense and experience, it seems, have flown the coop. Just look at Sweden, which avoided a lockdown and slashed its daily COVID-19 death rate.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is the latest to create a stir by saying he favored a “really hard” four-to-six week lockdown of the economy to get the virus under control and help the economy rebound later. Continue reading “”

Data isn’t just being collected from your phone. It’s being used to score you.

Operating in the shadows of the online marketplace, specialized tech companies you’ve likely never heard of are tapping vast troves of our personal data to generate secret “surveillance scores” – digital mug shots of millions of Americans – that supposedly predict our future behavior. The firms sell their scoring services to major businesses across the U.S. economy.

People with low scores can suffer harsh consequences.

CoreLogic and TransUnion say that scores they peddle to landlords can predict whether a potential tenant will pay the rent on time, be able to “absorb rent increases,” or break a lease. Large employers use HireVue, a firm that generates an “employability” score about candidates by analyzing “tens of thousands of factors,” including a person’s facial expressions and voice intonations. Other employers use Cornerstone’s score, which considers where a job prospect lives and which web browser they use to judge how successful they will be at a job.

Brand-name retailers purchase “risk scores” from Retail Equation to help make judgments about whether consumers commit fraud when they return goods for refunds. Players in the gig economy use outside firms such as Sift to score consumers’ “overall trustworthiness.” Wireless customers predicted to be less profitable are sometimes forced to endure longer customer service hold times. Continue reading “”

Estimated Firearms Sales In July 2020 Increased Year-Over-Year By 134.6%

Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting’s Chief Economist Jurgen Brauer:
“The firearms market continues at its far accelerated pace. Our estimates suggest that the market for the first seven months of 2020 now has nearly matched that of the entire year of 2019.”

Approximate United States Firearms Sales (January 2000 to July 2020).

Notes: Apart from obvious seasonality effects during the year, three massive demand spikes occurred in December 2013, December 2016, and as from March 2020 during the covid-19 crisis. Likely handgun unit sales overtook likely long-gun unit sales as from the year 2014.

 

 

From the last time AK and I visited there, I figured they had run out of room at the facilities north of Ozark a long time ago.

Ammunition maker investing $15M, adding 57 jobs at Little Rock facility

An Italian ammunition manufacturer will invest $15 million and add 57 jobs at its Little Rock facility, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Wednesday.

The U.S. subsidiary of Fiocchi Group previously produced ammunition parts at the facility on 145th Street in Little Rock. With the investment and additional employees, the facility will produce the finished ammunition, mainly centerfire products, the Fioccchi of America president, Anthony Acitelli, said.

Are ammo shortages the ‘new normal’ for the rest of 2020?
Well, I do know that most of the distributors I do business with are out of just about every caliber right now. With all the people buying guns for the first time, it’s to be expected that they’d lay in a supply of ammo too.

Gun stores seeing an ammo shortage they say could last into 2021

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Gun stores across the First Coast and the country are experiencing an ammunition shortage right now as many people try to stock up during these uncertain times.

“The gun store was totally sold out, and they told me they’ve been sold out for some time and they don’t know when they’re getting ammunition in,” gun owner Craig Riley said.

Demand for guns and ammo has never been higher according to Firearms Sales Manager Z. Farhat at Green Acres Sporting Goods. Business, he said, is up by about 300%.

“We’re selling at an all-time pace. We have never been this busy, and I think the gun business has never been this busy,” Farhat said.

He said it’s simply a matter of supply and demand. Continue reading “”

Arms industry: Gun buys up 95%, ammo 139%, sales to blacks jump 58%

The gun industry has never seen anything like 2020, and the explosion in sales driven by the concerns over rising crime, protests, the coronavirus crisis, and the presidential election are expected to continue.

“Bottom line is that there has never been a sustained surge in firearm sales quite like what we are in the midst of,” the National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, said in a report shared with Secrets.

New sales and customer data collected from gun stores are even more shocking than the latest historic level of FBI background checks for purchases, security clearances, and concealed carry permits. Continue reading “”

I used to explain that there was no such thing as a ‘standard cow’ made in a lab when one steak wasn’t as tender or juicy as the next one. Now they’re telling me KFC has what could be called a ‘standard chicken’?
Is beef next? Eeyahhhhh!

KFC will test lab-grown chicken nuggets made with a 3D bioprinter this fall in Russia.

KFC will test chicken nuggets made with 3D bioprinting technology in Moscow, Russia, this fall, the chain announced in a July 16 press release.

The chicken chain has partnered with 3D Bioprinting Solutions to create a chicken nugget made in a lab with chicken and plant cells using bioprinting. Bioprinting, which uses 3D-printing techniques to combine biological material, is used in medicine to create tissue and even organs.

The 3D-printed chicken nuggets will closely mimic the taste and appearance of KFC’s original chicken nuggets, according to the press release. KFC expects the production of 3D-printed nuggets to be more environmentally friendly than the production process of its traditional chicken nuggets. The fall release will mark the first debut of a lab-grown chicken nugget at a global fast-food chain like KFC.

“Crafted meat products are the next step in the development of our ‘restaurant of the future’ concept. Our experiment in testing 3D bioprinting technology to create chicken products can also help address several looming global problems. We are glad to contribute to its development and are working to make it available to thousands of people in Russia and, if possible, around the world,” Raisa Polyakova, the CEO of KFC Russia and Commonwealth Independent States said in the press release.