Firearm sales declining?

[solv3nt]

@solv3nt , personal anecdote; when I entered NTID for CNC /traditional machining course, i was told I could get a job as one for GM, at $20-25/ hour starting wage.. back in 2002. Over 20 years ago. Now, I'm looking at the same job, for GM.. it's $23 / hour.

It's cheaper to outsource to other countries

 

[MTpockets]

@solv3nt , personal anecdote; when I entered NTID for CNC /traditional machining course, i was told I could get a job as one for GM, at $20-25/ hour starting wage.. back in 2002. Over 20 years ago. Now, I'm looking at the same job, for GM.. it's $23 / hour.

The machines are more "intelligent"… There is less need for machinists and an increased need for lower skilled material handlers.

Load the material in the machines, and push a button to start the program.

Edit to add an image to illustrate the advancement:

 

[CamoDeafie]

The machines are more "intelligent"… There is less need for machinists and an increased need for lower skilled material handlers.

Load the material in the machines, and push a button to start the program.

This was true 20+ years ago, we were working with CNC machines, we only needed to double check the programming and the setup of the work pieces. They did teach us how to program the CNC machines and how to make use of CAD, in addition to traditional machining.

 

[ilikegunspdx]

Secrets behind the economy turmoil exposed:

 

[CLT65]

The one thing that has definitely gotten "relatively" cheaper is labor, especially with stagnant wages overall. Everything getting expensive except labor because companies would rather lay off and export jobs or replace with AI/automation than to raise wages at the same % as CPI

I agree. I have a pretty good blue-collar job for my area. My employer, a large multi-national, brags about how great their sales team has been in passing inflation on to their customers, but they won't pass it on to the workers. We got an extra 1% on our meager annual raise this year, to "help us out with the effects of inflation". I've been going backwards pretty bad lately, adjusted for inflation.

Inflation is subjective. Clearly it impacts some items more than others, and some people more than others, depending on how they live and what kinds of things they spend most of their money on.

I won't be buying any more guns or gun stuff for quite a while myself. We're really feeling the crunch, partly due to inflation but mostly due to a lot of life circumstances. When it rains it pours, and it's been pouring lately. I'm going to be cleaning out and getting rid of a lot of stuff.

 

[nick1980]

Without reading all the responses here are my 2 cents. Yes things have slowed compared to the last 3.5 years. But I don't think personally much more than they were during the Trump slump of sales. Panic and Democrats sell guns, republicans and post panics always make things slow. There were so many guns sold in the last 3 years people are just gunned out for new purchases.

 

[Longwalkhome]

Still I go by a gut feeling, something a while back says don't spend any money. Sure enough I didn't spend any but then my vet bill just hit $500 and climbing.

 

[CLT65]

I spend about $10k per year, out of pocket after insurance, on medical, mostly for my wife, and have for years. She can finally walk ok now, with a new ankle and a new hip, but she's not really getting better; she's effectively disabled. She'll have one good day and then two bad ones, a couple decent days, then a day in bed with a migraine. We're too young for this. Such is life I guess.

I'd held out hope after hope, year after year, surgery after surgery, that eventually we'd get back to some semblance of normalcy, but that hope is dying; this is our life. Yeah, I'm done buying toys. The thrill is gone.

Sorry to be a downer, but that's why I'm not contributing to the "gun economy" any more, that and needing a new roof this year, another car, teenagers to feed, kids in college, etc..

ADDED: Sorry, I didn't realize that this post came across so whiny. It's just life; I know a lot of you all have been through tough times, or tougher. Please excuse my little pity-party. I talked to a good friend last night and he was talking about some real hard times he's been through. It's good to bring life into a little perspective now and then.

 

[eustace_stelio]

One thing I was hoping Trump would do was to bring manufacturing back to the US. It's much cheaper to outsource and buy garbage that doesn't last from other countries.

I disagree that labor is getting cheaper, isn't the minimum wage in Oregon pushing $15/hr?

It's still like $7.50 nationally.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Along with gun sales, brass sales have plummeted also. I'm not gonna lower my prices anymore than the market allows, I'll sit on them.

 

[OrPackrat]

It's still like $7.50 nationally.

But then the cost of living is different from place to place...

For the same dollar one area would buy you a tiny shack and another, a large home with some land..

 

[CamoDeafie]

But then the cost of living is different from place to place...

For the same dollar one area would buy you a tiny shack and another, a large home with some land..

Seems prices are getting similar in certain areas of the States, look at Idaho and Bozeman, Montana for example.. same for Utah. Point being... unless you're moving to Wyoming, or to Nebraska, the two Dakotas, or somewhere in "The Deep South" gulf States.. house/land prices are gonna be not that much less compared to Oregon.

 

[eustace_stelio]

But then the cost of living is different from place to place...

For the same dollar one area would buy you a tiny shack and another, a large home with some land..

Sorta but no where in America can you rent a 1 bedroom apartment on a 40hr minimum wage paycheck and still afford food, utilities, phone, car insurance and health insurance. Let alone any extracurricular activity/hobby/entertainment.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Sorta but no where in America can you rent a 1 bedroom apartment on a 40hr minimum wage paycheck and still afford food, utilities, phone, car insurance and health insurance. Let alone any extracurricular activity/hobby/entertainment.

This why everyone sells drugs and has an only fans account.

 

[MaxwellEdison]

This why everyone sells drugs and has an only fans account.

Alright, I see how it's going to be. You just had to go there about my OnlyFans account, didn't you??

For the rest of you who have a foot bunnion fetish, I'm selling stills of my bunnion for $1.99 each. I'll do a live show for $1.49/minute where I massage my bunnion and tell you how hot it's making me.

Send me a PM for the link.

 

[solv3nt]

Alright, I see how it's going to be. You just had to go there about my OnlyFans account, didn't you??

For the rest of you who have a foot bunnion fetish, I'm selling stills of my bunnion for $1.99 each. I'll do a live show for $1.49/minute where I massage my bunnion and tell you how hot it's making me.

Send me a PM for the link.

 

[bolus]

To the original point, for the last few months, it's been very slow for sales, that daily number, which isn't much, is getting harder and harder to reach, sales are falling more and more. Sure, sales were amazing last November/December and even January but these last couple months it's been very slow...

I suspect it's the economy, inflation, all those things making everything cost more and cutting people hobby or sport budgets, but also we do get people in who ask what they can buy with 114 being in place, which for the time being, it's not...

Has anyone else noticed sales dropping off? I know many shops have shut down even with the initial 114 threat last year.

I'm just worried about my favorite FFL being forced to close not from all these new laws trying to be passed but just lack of sales.

April outpaced January.

NICS Firearm Background Checks: Day/Month/Year | Federal Bureau of Investigation

Statistics represent the number of firearms background checks initiated through the NICS from January 1, 2021 to April 30, 2023.

www.fbi.gov

In 4 months 2023 has outpaced all the sales in 2007

NICS Firearm Checks: Month/Year | Federal Bureau of Investigation

Statistics represent the number of firearms background checks initiated through the NICS from November 1998 to April 30, 2023.

www.fbi.gov

by state:

NICS Firearm Checks: Month/Year by State | Federal Bureau of Investigation

Statistics represent the number of state-by-state firearms background checks initiated through the NICS from November 1998 to February 29, 2024.

www.fbi.gov

 

[OrPackrat]

Alright, I see how it's going to be. You just had to go there about my OnlyFans account, didn't you??

For the rest of you who have a foot bunnion fetish, I'm selling stills of my bunnion for $1.99 each. I'll do a live show for $1.49/minute where I massage my bunnion and tell you how hot it's making me.

Send me a PM for the link.

I need to setup an only fans account it seems...

Perhaps just run freeze dried candy making tutorials...

 

[Jay Walk]

When did minimum wage become a living wage?
Back when coffee hit 5 bucks a cup?

 

[Longwalkhome]

When I was a kid the minimum wage was $1.25 an hour, going to high school and working nights in a restaurant.

Summer would come along and the big money jobs working in the canneries paid $1.65. Life was good.Smith.

Edited too add, a new 1022 for $44 at the big stores. A brick of 22lr was $5