#Industry

The last couple of years of “strong consumer demand” (panic buying) has finally come to an end. .22 LR ammunition is still thin on the ground (although easy to purchase online) but centerfire inventory is good, retailers are flush with AR-15 rifles and there is a higher level of discounting than what we have seen in a while.

CNN reports on the continued increase of woman taking up shooting for either self-defense, sport or both …

The dream job for many TFB readers …

MSN Money reports that Smith & Wesson’s share price took a 10% hit after sales were below Wall Street exceptions …

RUAG Ammotec, the small caliber ammunition subsidiary of European defense giant RUAG, have announced they are spending “upper double-digit million range” of Euros over the next few years to increase ammunition production because of heightened demand in the USA and Europe. The company owns a number of factories around Europe and one in Tampa, Florida. Their consumer and law enforcement ammunition in the USA is sold under the RWS, Rottweil, Swiss-P and MFS brands.

The Peace Research Institute of Oslo have produced a visualization of the imports and exports and military and civilian weapons and ammunition. I have seen many of these types of visualizations before, but this is the first one I have seen that allows you to filter out military weapons so you only see civilian weapon data. You can click on any country and see where they export civilian (or military) weapons to and from where they import them.

A contributor at Seeking Alpha reports that Ruger’s has an order backlog worth an incredible $590 million as of the end of the second quarter. This backlog is down only slightly from the Q1 backlog which was $602 million. In Q2 incoming orders were down from Q1 and Q4 (2012), but still far higher than Q2 in 2011 and 2012.

Each year the National Shooting Sports Foundation surveys FFL retailers around the country to see what products are the biggest sellers and what demographics are buying guns. The highlights from the latest survey are …

Somehow Steven Seagal managed to convince the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Rogozin that he would be able to lobby the US government to ease restrictions on Russian firearm imports. I think our chances of buying an AK-12 or AK-107 at the local gun store just diminished.

Magpul have announced that within 30 days PMAGs will be made outside of Colorado due to recently passed legislation. They said on their Facebook page …

The Obama administration announcement that they are supporting a new Assault Weapon Ban, and a ban on high capacity magazines, has sent shockwaves through the industry. All day consumers have been buying guns, ammunition and magazines.

Reuters is reporting that Cerberus Capital Management will immediately begin selling The Freedom Group …

In 2010 the BATFE arrested 21 people, including Smith & Wesson executives for beaching the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a law which prohibits US corporations, citizens and residents from bribing foreign officials. Those arrested were charged with conspiring to bribe officials in the African state of Gabon as part of a deal to sell $15 million of equipment to the 1,800 man strong Gabon Presidential (Republican) Guard.

Large caliber rifle LAR Grizzly and LAR Manufacturing have been acquired by Remington / The Freedom Group. Remington has not yet sent out a press release about this acquisition, but Ethan at Aftermath Gun Club spoke to the LAR Manufacturing who confirmed the news.

The weapons in the relatively new video game Borderlands 2 features guns which are randomly generated during the game. Each gun is “made” by one of eight fictional gun companies, each with its own style of weaponry. The companies compete with each other for business and the game developers produced some fantastic faux advertisements for each company. Ryan, a reader of TFB, explains below …