The owner of Eagle Gun Range, David Prince says gun sales are down since President Trump took office.
“I think it’s a comfort level with the current administration and law and order,” said Prince, who has a gun range in Lewisville and another in Farmers Branch.
“During the Obama era, we sold a lot of guns,” said Prince. “Every time they opened their mouths about confiscating guns, or outlawing certain guns, or banning high capacities, our sales went through the roof.”
Now, Prince says, gun sales at his two stores are off by 40% over the past two years.
“Pretty much everybody’s down, just because demand is down," said Prince. "People are feeling more comfortable, they think that things are not going to be taken away from them.”
Falling sales is one reason the country’s oldest gun maker, Remington Outdoor Company, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday.
Remington reported a 27% drop in the first nine months of 2017.
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The company is also burdened with heavy debt, and investors kept their distance after 2012’s Sandy Hook school shooting, when 20 children and six adults were killed with a Remington Bushmaster AR-15 assault style rifle.
“One of my major distributors is having some difficulties now as well,” said Prince.
A leading competitor, Colt Manufacturing Co. LLC emerged from bankruptcy in 2016.
Across the country, firearm background checks declined faster in 2017 than any other year since 1998, when the FBI started collecting the data.
In Texas, the number last year dropped from 2016 by more than 170,000, to just over 1.5 million.
