have followed the nation’s election cycle, spiking when Democratic elections aggravate fears of gun control, and dipping when Republicans come into power. Gun sales ballooned in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting, when President Barack Obama pledged to enact stricter gun reforms. Though few of his promises were realized, the industry enjoyed unprecedented prosperity for the remainder of his presidency.
Photos of the coin given out by Smith & Wesson to celebrate sales in late 2020, provided by a former employee.Growth in profits at the publicly traded gun companies even outpaced the record growth in sales, indicating that gunmakers were able to keep costs down while scrambling to meet unprecedented demand.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade organization that represents the gun industry, has attributed the more even distribution of the sales boom to a dramatic increase in first-time gun buyers, many of them from groups traditionally underrepresented among American firearm owners. But limitedrefutes much of the organization’s claim.