Sunday, December 18, 2005

Politics: A slumping economy?

I have been working in the firearms industry since Winter of '93. Coal Creek Armory is the fourth FFL I have worked for.

I was slinging guns across the glass on September 12 of 1994, the eve of the Assault Weapons Ban taking effect. I was selling guns on December 31, 1999; the day before Y2K. September 11, 2001? I was selling guns. I was selling guns on the day the AWB sunset took hold in 2004, and I was selling guns in the post Hurricane Katrina buying frenzy of '05. These were the biggest red-letter days in the retail firearms industry.

On Friday, December 16th, 2005, I saw more guns sell in one day than I have on any other day since I started doing this for a living.

Economic slump? Phhhththththht!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two things:

1) I also don't believe we're in an economic slump. Houses are selling left and right, as home loans are easier to come by now. More and more cars are being sold, quite possibly because of Christmas time sales, and because the prices for automobiles and gasoline/diesel are falling. I think America as a whole, is going through a prosperous time right now.

2) You and CCA need more part time help! *cough* ME *cough* :)

Anonymous said...

Well... unless you live in Boston, where they have taken a 20% nosedive in prices. But that's just because they don't want to admit that people just want to get out of that liberal hell hole.

Anonymous said...

Care to comment on what is selling?

Pistol, rifle or shotgun? New or used? Military or "sporting"?

Tam said...

Our best sellers have been handguns; mostly Glock 19/23s, S&W 642/637s, Kel-Tec P3ATs, and Walther P-22s.

We also found a good source for bare-bones home defense-type Remington 870s and have had a hard time keeping them in stock, as well as cheaper AR-15 variants.

We mostly cater to the CCW/home defense/black & tactical niche (In Other Words: Stuff WallyWorld is skeered to stock) and so that skews the numbers.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely agree. We just posted the highest sales this store has ever posted in 20 plus years. Cannot keep Bersa .380s in stock (and get almost zero in for repair), cannot keep P22s or Kel-Tec .32/.380s in stock and the used gun market is just as hot. In fact after Xmas was very good as well. Greetings from South Kakalacky... Spec Ops Al