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Gun Sales Dropping?

wmg1299

wmg1299

Professional
Despite February 2021 being the third best February in recent history for gun sales, Forbes just ran the following article about gun sales dropping. The article explains the drop by stating that many gun buyers met their needs by buying guns in 2020. I personally think the lack of selection and the current ammo shortage are much more likely to have caused a drop in sales. Is Forbes on to something here, or is this just a media attempt to downplay the popularity of guns?

www.forbes.com

Gun Sales Dropped Last Month. Here’s Why.

Almost 23 million guns were sold in 2020, the busiest year on record.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
 
Thanks for posting wmg1299, makes for some interesting thoughts.
From my perspective, with a halfway intelligent approach, a potential novice handgun buyer, with few exceptions, isn't going to buy much of anything, gun or otherwise if parts are missing or aren't easily and readily available such as ammo.

In some ways, for some people, the rise and fall in gun sales effects are almost like a perfect storm political medical scenarios, especially the rise. Then, for the drop, common sense may kick in and says "gun w/o ammo is basically a small club. Clubs are generally cheaper and more available." - May be interesting to see if baseball bat or tire iron sales increased? -Partial sarcasm.

There are many more readily available defensive weapons if need be beside bats or guns. If thought of, may not be a pretty sight if happens. Those gun sale figures reflect many things besides possibly saturated markets.
 
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wmg1299 said:
Despite February 2021 being the third best February in recent history for gun sales, Forbes just ran the following article about gun sales dropping. The article explains the drop by stating that many gun buyers met their needs by buying guns in 2020. I personally think the lack of selection and the current ammo shortage are much more likely to have caused a drop in sales. Is Forbes on to something here, or is this just a media attempt to downplay the popularity of guns?

www.forbes.com

Gun Sales Dropped Last Month. Here’s Why.

Almost 23 million guns were sold in 2020, the busiest year on record.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
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Another interesting graph may be when ammo availability and ammo sales increase will gun sales also increase?
That may paint a clearer picture?
 
Well... just a couple points, fwiw:
a. Third best is pretty darn good, unless the stats only go back 3 yrs. If they go back, say, 30 yrs then 3rd is darn good:).

b. How were things like car sales? If lots of other big sticker
($) wanna-have items dropped dramatically then gun sales were great by comparison.

c. It’s only March 4th now. I doubt FFL checks are as refined as actual sales data; lotsa places lay away too. I dunno.

d. Who cares? Short term trends come n go. 10-20 yr patterns matter.
 
TidalWave said:
Well... just a couple points, fwiw:
a. Third best is pretty darn good, unless the stats only go back 3 yrs. If they go back, say, 30 yrs then 3rd is darn good:).

b. How were things like car sales? If lots of other big sticker
($) wanna-have items dropped dramatically then gun sales were great by comparison.

c. It’s only March 4th now. I doubt FFL checks are as refined as actual sales data; lotsa places lay away too. I dunno.

d. Who cares? Short term trends come n go. 10-20 yr patterns matter.
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Some very good points.
 
The last several times I’ve been into my local Shoot Point Blank they have been overflowing with inventory. What I do see a lot of is the cheap $300 guns are selling while $600 on up seem to be much slower. I think a vast majority of last years new gun owners are one gun owners. I think the people like myself who bought their first gun a year ago and then proceeded down the rabbit hole continually adding to a burgeoning collection make up a much smaller market. I don’t see how the gun market can continue the torrid pace it has been on long term.
 
I think the events last summer and fall woke up a lot of people regarding how vulnerable they are or were. The police were ordered to stand down by politicians, and for the most part, they did. Those actions emphasized that, to sort of paraphrase Smoky Bear, "Only YOU can prevent violence directed at you."
 
somorris said:
I think the events last summer and fall woke up a lot of people regarding how vulnerable they are or were. The police were ordered to stand down by politicians, and for the most part, they did. Those actions emphasized that, to sort of paraphrase Smoky Bear, "Only YOU can prevent violence directed at you."
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It was indeed a reality check for many people. Face it, we’ve had things so good in America since WWII that most folks minds have been in LaLa Land their whole lives...
 
TidalWave said:
It was indeed a reality check for many people. Face it, we’ve had things so good in America since WWII that most folks minds have been in LaLa Land their whole lives...
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Yes, in some ways. But, we're all not always so blessed.
You may have experienced that, is a good you did in your surroundings. But, there are many who don't and aren't in other surroundings. USA's a very large country. Good or not, most people only experience their own home state's reality.
 
I'm getting really confused about the whole situation. The Forbes article from 03/02/2021 that I posted at the top of this thread stated that 1.5 million guns were sold in February 2021. Someone else posted a link to an MSN article from 03/04/2021 which stated that February 2021 gun sales had surged to 3,442,777. This perfectly illustrates why people are losing faith in the main-stream media.

 
wmg1299 said:
I'm getting really confused about the whole situation. The Forbes article from 03/02/2021 that I posted at the top of this thread stated that 1.5 million guns were sold in February 2021. Someone else posted a link to an MSN article from 03/04/2021 which stated that February 2021 gun sales had surged to 3,442,777. This perfectly illustrates why people are losing faith in the main-stream media.

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I think that's a huge leap. The articles got their numbers from different sources. Your article hot an estimate from the NSSF. The other article got its numbers from FBI background checks. The other article agreed with your article that the sales number dropped from January. This is not the reason some people lost faith in the media.
 
You also have to be careful of the semantics.

"Gun sales"
"NICS background checks"
"New gun owners"

All three of those terms are being batted around the media right now, but they all mean very different things and it pays to know the difference, and to pay attention to which of the three an article or story is referring to.

Regardless - demand is huge, supply can't keep up, and none of us have enough ammo to feed our weapons for practice. And, people are...aware? I don't want to use the term "scared"...yet...but by and large, people ARE more aware of what's going on today, and that is driving a lot of the sales.
 
benstt said:
I think that's a huge leap. The articles got their numbers from different sources. Your article hot an estimate from the NSSF. The other article got its numbers from FBI background checks. The other article agreed with your article that the sales number dropped from January. This is not the reason some people lost faith in the media.
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The purpose of these articles is the same as gun magazines: to sell you/me their publications and to sell advertising space.
Accuracy and clarity can be, in varying degrees and circumstances, strong contributory factors. But you never know what important data or blurb got edited out for the sake of timeliness and other reasons.
What didn’t get mentioned is often more important than what did, esp when dealing with numbers.
 
benstt said:
I think that's a huge leap. The articles got their numbers from different sources. Your article hot an estimate from the NSSF. The other article got its numbers from FBI background checks. The other article agreed with your article that the sales number dropped from January. This is not the reason some people lost faith in the media.
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I would have to respectfully disagree on it being a huge leap. The first two lines of the MSN story are "U.S. gun sales in February surged 23% to 3,442,777. This makes it among the largest single month sales since sales figures started to be recorded in 1998."

The first sentence of the paragraph that addresses the MSN source is, "The Federal Bureau of Investigation tracks gun sales and publishes a list of how many are handled as part of its National Instant Criminal Background Check System." The next sentence reads, "Nearly everyone put through the system qualifies as a buyer."

The Forbes article cites both SAAF and NSSF sources for their numbers, and I would assume that the Forbes article is more accurate. Regardless of where the numbers came from, the first sentence of the MSN article is clearly written as a statement of fact. MSN publishing such a statement, despite contrary findings being published by other respected sources, shows that they are adding an editorial slant to try and shock readers. In my opinion, Media networks cherry-picking the numbers that support their favored political stance, then publishing their findings as "facts", is exactly the type of behavior that leads to mistrust of the media.
 
Peglegjoe said:
You also have to be careful of the semantics.

"Gun sales"
"NICS background checks"
"New gun owners"

All three of those terms are being batted around the media right now, but they all mean very different things and it pays to know the difference, and to pay attention to which of the three an article or story is referring to.

Regardless - demand is huge, supply can't keep up, and none of us have enough ammo to feed our weapons for practice. And, people are...aware? I don't want to use the term "scared"...yet...but by and large, people ARE more aware of what's going on today, and that is driving a lot of the sales.
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Exactly that.
 
wmg1299 said:
I would have to respectfully disagree on it being a huge leap. The first two lines of the MSN story are "U.S. gun sales in February surged 23% to 3,442,777. This makes it among the largest single month sales since sales figures started to be recorded in 1998."

The first sentence of the paragraph that addresses the MSN source is, "The Federal Bureau of Investigation tracks gun sales and publishes a list of how many are handled as part of its National Instant Criminal Background Check System." The next sentence reads, "Nearly everyone put through the system qualifies as a buyer."

The Forbes article cites both SAAF and NSSF sources for their numbers, and I would assume that the Forbes article is more accurate. Regardless of where the numbers came from, the first sentence of the MSN article is clearly written as a statement of fact. MSN publishing such a statement, despite contrary findings being published by other respected sources, shows that they are adding an editorial slant to try and shock readers. In my opinion, Media networks cherry-picking the numbers that support their favored political stance, then publishing their findings as "facts", is exactly the type of behavior that leads to mistrust of the media.
Click to expand...
That's cool, we can disagree.
 
wmg1299 said:
I would have to respectfully disagree on it being a huge leap. The first two lines of the MSN story are "U.S. gun sales in February surged 23% to 3,442,777. This makes it among the largest single month sales since sales figures started to be recorded in 1998."

The first sentence of the paragraph that addresses the MSN source is, "The Federal Bureau of Investigation tracks gun sales and publishes a list of how many are handled as part of its National Instant Criminal Background Check System." The next sentence reads, "Nearly everyone put through the system qualifies as a buyer."

The Forbes article cites both SAAF and NSSF sources for their numbers, and I would assume that the Forbes article is more accurate. Regardless of where the numbers came from, the first sentence of the MSN article is clearly written as a statement of fact. MSN publishing such a statement, despite contrary findings being published by other respected sources, shows that they are adding an editorial slant to try and shock readers. In my opinion, Media networks cherry-picking the numbers that support their favored political stance, then publishing their findings as "facts", is exactly the type of behavior that leads to mistrust of the media.
Click to expand...
Sometimes unfortunately, well intentioned authors get their facts confused too. Just because something is from a fairly reliable source doesn't always mean it's almost gospel, especially when gleaned from the internet or another online source. With the speed of the internet, poor news travels just as fast as good news and is hard to easily separate. I mainly try to pay more attention to the point of a story. But, I definitely do get your drift.
 
Momentum may be down from the absurdities, but the absurd isn't over yet.

Saint Edge PDW's average 2500 price tags online, Saint Edge Evacs are going for up 3k in listings.

M&P 15 Sport 2's with modest upgrades are still hoodwinking first time buyers for 1500 plus on Gunbroker, down from the 2500 to 3000 they fetched in January.
 
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