More Guns And Votes

About a week ago I posted something on the growth in firearms sales and subsequent economic success of the firearms industry. Turns out others have noticed this as well. Reason Magazine takes a deeper look.

In a February 2012 fund-raising appearance, President Barack Obama expressed his desire to keep America’s assembly lines humming. “I want to make sure the next generation of manufacturing isn’t taking root just in Asia or Europe,” he told a crowd of supporters. “I want it taking root in factories in Detroit and Pittsburgh and Cleveland and California.…I want to reward companies that are investing here in the United States and creating jobs all throughout this country.”

Two weeks earlier, however, a federal agency had released a report that suggested at least one component of the manufacturing sector was not only still making stuff in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, California, and thousands of other places in America, but making more of it than it had in decades. According to the “Annual Firearms Production and Export Report” from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), American manufacturers produced 5,459,240 handguns, rifles, shotguns, and miscellaneous ordnance in 2010. (To comply with the Trade Secrets Act, the BATFE waits one year to publish these data; numbers for 2010 therefore are not published until January 2012.) It was the second year in a row the industry had attained numbers not seen since the glory days of the late Carter administration.

A little more than a decade ago, the domestic firearms industry was staggering like a villain on the wrong side of Dirty Harry’s .44 Magnum. “The future has never been more uncertain for America’s oldest manufacturing industry,” a Businessweek cover story reported in 1999. Flat sales, the specter of more stringent regulation, and dozens of lawsuits filed by cities and counties seeking damages for the costs associated with gun violence threatened to destroy a uniquely American business. U.S. companies were going bankrupt, foreign competitors were claiming a bigger piece of the action, and even industry executives were expecting the market to “steadily shrink over the long term.”

Yet here it is, 13 years later, well into America’s great manufacturing exodus and the post-financial-crisis economic slump, and the domestic firearms industry is enjoying near-record productivity. According to Smith & Wesson, one of just two U.S. gun manufacturers that are publicly traded and thus publish their sales figures, the company ended its 2011 fiscal year with a backlog of $187 million in orders after enjoying “record fourth quarter sales and units shipped.” Meanwhile, Sturm, Ruger & Co. is on a quest to become the first U.S. gun manufacturer to build and ship 1 million units in a single year.

The article goes on to cite several reasons for this. One, of course is obama himself. Shortly after his election, he started making anti-gun noises, which resulted in a surge of gun and ammo sales. One firearms industry news service awarded him the title of “Gun Salesman of the Year” in 2009.

A second reason given, surprisingly, is feminism.

Approximately 250,000 women have served in combat zones in Afghanistan and Iraq during the last decade, and when they complete their service they are “returning with a familiarity of firearms their mothers never had.”

Building on the theme of veterans and firearms:

“Returning vets who went into the military without much experience with firearms have now been exposed to them” ... “Half of the folks buying (AR-15 type) firearms in the last several years are current or former military and law enforcement” ... “They’re buying modern sporting rifles because they’re very similar to the rifles they carried while in the military.”

Another reason is "the widespread adoption of right-to-carry laws" and the accompanying demand for new models that are designed specifically for concealed carry.

A final interesting -- and instructive -- factor is advances in technology.

“Computer control is making the small firearms manufacturer a practical possibility again” ... "Computer numerical control (CNC) milling machines reduce both the equipment and the manpower it takes to produce firearms."

This has led to a rise in small regional manufacturers "producing anywhere from a few dozen to a few thousand pieces a year and marketing them to their local communities."

Small businesses, anyone? American ingenuity, innovation, and work ethic? Are you paying attention, voters?

Probably not.

Sigh...