Trump Slump Gun Dump

March 26, 2018 4:21 PM

Remington Outdoor, manufacturer of the Bushmaster rifle that was used in Sandy Hook, has filed for Chapter 11.[Guardian] This is being blamed on the Trump Slump[NPR], a drop-off in arms purchases when a Republican is President. (Not to be confused with the Trump Slump in the general economy[Economist].)

But that does not explain the 2015 bankruptcy of Colt Holdings[CNN], (which was attributed to a failure to produce easily-concealed handguns)[CNN]. Colt restructured but is now on the verge of Chapter 11 again[MotleyFool]. The Belgian firm, Herstal (aka FN), owns both Browning and haunted Winchester. (More on the long history of Belgian/American gun manufacture. Some Americans are disturbed to discover that their weapons are Euro-made. (More on US gun manufacture.) So what about Smith & Wesson? Slumping.[CNBC]

posted by CCBC (26 comments total)

Another glowing example of craptacular leveraged buyouts. I swear they should be made illegal. It's basically borrowing other people's money to loot a company and hang it out to dry.
posted by Talez at 4:39 PM on March 26, 2018 [29 favorites]

What you said. As in the Toys-R-Us story, not enough attention has been paid to the malign effect of private equity. That this is so is a case of journalistic malpractice, as another, more august writer said on these very same internets...
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 4:40 PM on March 26, 2018 [6 favorites]

It's basically borrowing other people's money to loot a company and hang it out to dry.

Can we do this to all gun manufacturers?
posted by Toddles at 4:43 PM on March 26, 2018 [11 favorites]

Can we do this to all gun manufacturers?

Only Smith & Wesson. Just find enough marks investors to give you half a billion for AOBC, pay yourself a nice dividend out of the loan amount, and then saddle the company with the debt.
posted by Talez at 4:46 PM on March 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Or maybe they're just spending WAY too much on NRA-funneled politician bribes...
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:57 PM on March 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

… and absolutely nothing to do with staying the Sandy Hook legal action against them, nope nope nope
posted by scruss at 5:10 PM on March 26, 2018 [12 favorites]

Nah foop, politicians are surprisingly cheap.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:33 PM on March 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Perhaps one day, all the hammers will fall silent.
posted by SPrintF at 5:46 PM on March 26, 2018 [5 favorites]

Cry me a river.
posted by OHenryPacey at 5:47 PM on March 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

This is somehow the Millennials' fault, right? Like napkins and diamonds?
posted by debgpi at 6:05 PM on March 26, 2018

Somewhere a Republican marketing executive is seething that Toys 'R Us was not allowed to sell automatic assault weapons to children. /hamburger
posted by riverlife at 6:11 PM on March 26, 2018

All gun manufacturers money problems would be solved by Democrat president.

The NRA would be able to fall back on their favorite strategic boogeyman - gun seizure. "The president is gonna take all your guns! Buy now....before it's too late."
posted by bawanaal at 6:31 PM on March 26, 2018

The bankruptcy filing by Remington Outdoor Inc., the company that makes the rifle used in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, will force some of the victims’ families to seek approval from a bankruptcy judge to let their legal fight against the nation’s oldest gunmaker go forward.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 7:47 PM on March 26, 2018 [18 favorites]

Yup, and that’s entirely what this is about.
posted by Artw at 10:55 PM on March 26, 2018 [7 favorites]

Let each and every weapons manufacturer on this planet go belly up, best thing that could happen to the entirety of humanity.
posted by dbiedny at 3:16 AM on March 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Let each and every weapons manufacturer on this planet go belly up, best thing that could happen to the entirety of humanity.

“Wouldn't it be great if everyone renounced violence forever? Then I could conquer the whole stupid world with a butterknife.”
posted by acb at 5:34 AM on March 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

I wouldn’t worry about them, say, stopping making and selling guns or them stopping making money hand over disc making and selling guns, that’s absolutely not what this is about.
posted by Artw at 5:37 AM on March 27, 2018

Yup, and that’s entirely what this is about.

Not really. There's no award to be won. There's not even a case to be fought. Every level will come back with "Have you read the PLCAA? Stop wasting my time." like they have so far.
posted by Talez at 6:29 AM on March 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

acb, is that a Dilbert quote lol

mediocre truisms for mediocre truths
posted by runt at 6:30 AM on March 27, 2018

My thoughts and prayers go to Remington in this horrible time.
posted by sotonohito at 6:31 AM on March 27, 2018 [10 favorites]

Jurgen Brauer, an emeritus professor of economics at Augusta University in Georgia who studies the arms market, says the rise in gun sales during the last decade is unprecedented. "We go from about 1,000 weapons per 100,000 people per year, to just about 3,000 weapons per 100,000 people per year. So that's a tripling of the market in the last 10 or 12 years. That's a dramatic increase," Brauer says.

it's almost like that time we elected Obama and there suddenly was 10x more extremist militia groups [source]

probably as the cause of nothing in particular, certainly not racism which was eliminated now that we have had 1/45 cishet male Presidents of color
posted by runt at 6:34 AM on March 27, 2018 [4 favorites]

acb, is that a Dilbert quote lol

I remember it from a USENET signature about 20 years ago, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by acb at 7:09 AM on March 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

How the hell is Dilbert almost thirty years old?!?!
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:55 AM on March 27, 2018

I remember it from a USENET signature about 20 years ago, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And it was preceeded by The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror #2 - where the monkey's paw gets rid of all weapons, the aliens conquer the world with a club, and then the humans reconquer the world with a board with a nail in it.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:34 AM on March 27, 2018

How the hell is Dilbert almost thirty years old?!?!

IKR? It's like some sort of... planned chaos.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:44 PM on March 27, 2018

PLCAA is not without its exceptions, Talez: that may be where the Sandy Hook parents are looking.
posted by scruss at 4:34 PM on March 27, 2018