Paranoia has its limits as gun sales slump

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Time for the NRA to orchestrate the next wave of gun aficionado paranoia. Good thing school lets out for the summer soon.

Paranoia has its limits as gun sales slump

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — #######’s Sporting Goods issued a profit warning Tuesday, and the biggest concern from management is over golf equipment. But that’s not the only reason the sporting-goods retailer is struggling.

The firm DKS -17.49% also warned over its hunting division, and on a conference call, management made it clear what’s going on.

Here’s what COO Joe Schmidt told investors: “We had anticipated this category to be below last year as did others in the space but we underestimated the decline. We all knew the significant increase in sales during the past couple of years was temporary and driven by concern for both legislative action that would broadly change our gun laws.”

Put another way: paranoia has its limits as a driver of gun sales. Background checks — a proxy for sales — jumped 19% in 2012 and rose another 8% in 2013, according to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal, Background Check System.

But there’s a different story in 2014. Background checks plummeted by a third in January — and even as some of that decline was weather related, there hasn’t been a catch-up since then. Background checks were up just 1% from February to April. Taken together, background checks are down 9% this year.

No wonder, then, that Cabela’s — another retailer of guns — saw its shares slump by around 5%. Of the publicly traded gun makers, Sturm, Ruger also was lower, though interestingly, Smith & Wesson was up, helped by a brokerage upgrade due to market-share gains.

[JohnR! 5,495]

I am sure in the near future, the motley crew will unearth a brand new secret phase of Barack Hussein kenyan 0bama's master plan to destroy Murkah, that will justify a run for guns, tanks, submarines, carriers, [sic] newkewlar devices and all the armory afforded to real patriot Murkhans by the 2nd amendment...

Edited May 20, 2014 by Gegel

[Teddy B 17,252]

Last time I posted that pic, it was removed for violating the new "Family Friendly" terms of VJ.

[JohnR! 5,495]

Don't they consider electric guitars family friendly?

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Someone needs to photoshop in a bag of Cheetos.. maybe a confederate flag in the background.

[JohnR! 5,495]

Someone needs to photoshop in a bag of Cheetos.. maybe a confederate flag in the background.

That might give the wrong impression...

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Last time I posted that pic, it was removed for violating the new "Family Friendly" terms of VJ.

That picture should violate a retina burning policy

[Teddy B 17,252]

That picture should violate a retina burning policy

Someone needs to take a weed whacker and a belt sander to that dude and clean him up.

[Darnell 8,478]

that's not a dude ! That's a woman !

[this Gender-Bending comment proudly brought to you by the Pinays For Pizza Political Action Committee]

Edited May 20, 2014 by Darnell

[Operator 1,927]

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/reports/top-ten-days-and-weeks-040514.pdf

"NOTE: These statistics represent the number of firearm background checks initiated through the NICS. They do not represent the

number of firearms sold. Based on varying state laws and purchase scenarios, a one-to-one correlation cannot be made

between a firearm background check and a firearm sale."

[Operator 1,927]

Last time I posted that pic, it was removed for violating the new "Family Friendly" terms of VJ.

Photos of the grundle are not family friendly.