Americans are buying fewer guns says Smith & Wesson

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Doom & gloom.....

If you were to read these recent posts you'd think the USA is really circling the drain. :rolleyes:

This whole $$$ nonsense is a tad far fetched.
I still see eager beavers line up 2/3 hours before a store opening to buy .22LR on sale.
And less we forget the recent SIG "BOGO" mess. The gun maker offered free .22LR pistols to those who purchased the selected SIG Sauer 1911 series pistols. The web & word-of-mouth(to those with the $$$ & resources) quickly turned that offer into a tailspin.

The general public with $(expendible income) isn't zooming off the cliff just yet.
The reduced sales by S&W or any other major firm will level itself out in 2014/2015. It's reported that Ruger cranks out approx 1,000,000 firearms a year. :eek:
I'm sure they will all find a good home somewhere.
 
Officers'Wife said:
Considering the number of people I've talked to that tell me they wouldn't have a S&W if it was given to them... I have to wonder if Americans are buying less guns or simply less guns from Smith and Wesson.
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Other than the whining about locks, I've not heard this. I have heard some complain about price, but not about the product.
 
jmr40 said:
Well for the last 6-8 years Americans have been buying at a record pace. The market had to get saturated at some point.
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No only market saturation but becoming hardened and less reactive to "doomsday" scenarios.

It's almost as if some WANT the high demand/prices to continue.
 
Originally Posted by Officers'Wife View Post
Considering the number of people I've talked to that tell me they wouldn't have a S&W if it was given to them... I have to wonder if Americans are buying less guns or simply less guns from Smith and Wesson.

Golly, I guess I can do the heavy lifting.... if they don't want those nasty Smith and Wesson's, well, I guess I could help out and give these orphaned pistols a good home....:D
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Record sales.....

I agree 100% that Smith and Wesson can't or realistically maintain record sales, year in & year out.
I would love to own or be a share holder in any corporation that had record sales year after year. :D

As stated, S&W can and will gear down. Some have complained about the Military and Police line QC. I handled a M&P 9x19mm about 6mo ago that was awful. The trigger pull was rough. I'm not a gunsmith or match shooter but it didn't look that hot.
FWIW; the Shield line has many fans. The sale prices: $350-430.00 seem right & I like the new "no thumb safety" version.
The after market Apex Tactical parts help. ;)
 
If I had 1200$ around I'd be all over a 25-5 (or is the classic line one called a 25-15?) Any way the n frame in 45 colt with the long barrel in blue but I can't drop that amount on one revolver at this time so
 
RustyShackelford said:
I agree 100% that Smith and Wesson can't or realistically maintain record sales, year in & year out.
I would love to own or be a share holder in any corporation that had record sales year after year. :D
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It actually isn't that unusual. If a market is growing it is fairly easy to have record sales every year pretty much forever. E.g. if the world population is growing at 1.1% per year, your sales should increase by 1.1% per year just to maintain your market share percentage.

This is the root of the famous (at least in my circles) "shrinking slice of a growing pie" problem. It is easy for a business, especially in a new or expanding market, to see positive growth and continuously break previous sales records over its entire existence while in fact losing market share. Eventually those companies become bit players without ever realizing they were in trouble because hey, record sales every year. One day they issue a press release about a new product and nobody cares. Sales collapse. At that point the company must reinvent themselves or die.
 
Spending cash?.....

What is spending cash? :confused:
Wouldn't S&W customers have the $ to buy new guns?

The problem isn't economics or politics, S&W just has to accept that the US consumer market has slowed down. People with $ to spend aren't going to buy piles of guns or buy the same model over & over.
 
Background checks per year:

2011 - 16M
2012 - 19M
2013 - 24M

As the internet enables more used gun sales and the introduction to new smaller companies, of course the big boys are going to take a hit - that doesn't mean American are buying fewer guns.
 
DHJenkins said:
Background checks per year:

2011 - 16M
2012 - 19M
2013 - 24M

As the internet enables more used gun sales and the introduction to new smaller companies, of course the big boys are going to take a hit - that doesn't mean American are buying fewer guns.
Click to expand...

NSSF-NICS-March-2014.jpg ​

Gun sales are dropping, and NICS checks are being required more and more. There's absolutely no question.
 
alsaqr said:
The gun market is about saturated. An AR-15 rifle can be had for about $650.
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The AR-15 market is one gun market that is extremely competitive -- much like personal computers have been for decades. I expect the price of AR's to drop well below $500.00.

The hard costs associated with producing and selling ARs simply don't justify much more.
 
A slow down in firearm sales is no surprise to me. I am more surprised that it took so long. Maybe this will allow S&W to make a few more 617's, perhaps some new products, and take a look at their pricing and perhaps begin some discounting at the distributor level. The revolvers are really getting expensive.
 
Sounds to me that they need to lower their prices to sell more guns.

I was under the impression they were already at maxed out manufacturing capacity so they don't really need to drop prices. When they start manufacturing more than they sell, we'll see a drop in prices. Till then I'll keep buying used for a half the price new if I want. I'm pretty much done buying guns. Oh I'll barter for guns but that's about it now.
 
Kynoch said:
NSSF-NICS-March-2014.jpg ​

Gun sales are dropping, and NICS checks are being required more and more. There's absolutely no question.
Click to expand...
Kynoch,

I'm not sure here but by this graph couldn't you assume that sales are going to surpass last years numbers? 4 months are left in the year and if you divide equally what has already sold, the market should pass 1.6 million.
Although I could be 100% wrong.
Sales are not even through the year. I know there is an ebb and flow. One thing we can reliably expect is a bit of a surge around Black Friday and Christmas.
Your thoughts?
 
Start making 3rd generation Smiths again and I'll buy a truck load. If it weren't for those stupid locks on their revolvers, I'd buy a bunch of them, too. As it is now, with all of their plastic guns, I'm not likely to ever buy another Smith.
 
MagnumDweeb said:
Sounds to me that they need to lower their prices to sell more guns.

I was under the impression they were already at maxed out manufacturing capacity so they don't really need to drop prices. When they start manufacturing more than they sell, we'll see a drop in prices. Till then I'll keep buying used for a half the price new if I want. I'm pretty much done buying guns. Oh I'll barter for guns but that's about it now.
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Depending on the model, the makers are already there. Not only are their internal inventories high, S&W, Ruger, et. al. also flooded the distribution chains and from the looks of it, quite a few retailers.

While some models are no doubt scares, most no longer are. It's going to be interesting to see if they start dropping prices in order to retain revenue by taking more of their competitors' sales.
 
Field Tester said:
Kynoch,

I'm not sure here but by this graph couldn't you assume that sales are going to surpass last years numbers? 4 months are left in the year and if you divide equally what has already sold, the market should pass 1.6 million.
Although I could be 100% wrong.
Sales are not even through the year. I know there is an ebb and flow. One thing we can reliably expect is a bit of a surge around Black Friday and Christmas.
Your thoughts?
Click to expand...

No. This graph is for a single month (March) over a 15 year period. If the statisticians did their jobs correctly they picked a month that was most representative of average monthly guns sales. No surges before Christian or major hunting seasons and no months directly after such events.
 
Kynoch said:
No. This graph is for a single month (March) over a 15 year period. If the statisticians did their jobs correctly they picked a month that was most representative of average monthly guns sales. No surges before Christian or major hunting seasons and no months directly after such events.
Click to expand...
Can't believe I missed that. I'm on my phone so it's hard to see everything sometimes.
 
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