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Latest Trends in the Firearm Industry
President Joe Biden’s nominee for Chief of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, David Chipman, was pulled from consideration earlier this month. Chipman, who once served as an ATF agent before becoming a prominent gun control advocate, likely would have failed to run the gauntlet of congressional hearings. The problem, gun rights advocates say, was, ironically, Chipman’s allegiance with Biden’s extremist views on gun control: Although a gun owner, Chipman advocates for a blanket ban on assault weapons and limitations on high-capacity magazines. There is nothing new about these talking points – all Democratic presidents who’ve held office since Clinton have wanted to institute such bans.
But America’s tone on firearms is changing. And the volume of the message – that Americans suddenly see a need to arm themselves and to otherwise exercise their Second Amendment rights – is being turned up by groups who, previously, would’ve likely championed the sort of gun control supported by Biden, Chipman, and the federal Democratic camp. Women comprise nearly half of new gun owners. Gun ownership among black men and women is soaring, too. First-time buyers are outpacing return gun owners at the checkout counter by a factor of two to one. Sales have risen to yet another record high in 2021, after 2020 stole the show with nearly 40 million firearms sold. Importantly, none of this is due any longer to the Coronavirus pandemic – the mechanism largely credited with yesteryear’s gun sale boom.
No, these data reflect a broader change in the narrative of gun culture in America. And it’s running counter to the very narrative set by this President and his administration which, in any other political environment, would have probably otherwise been embraced by the very folks – many of whom were Biden voters – loading up on guns. And further contrary to the anti-gun narrative set by officials, many buyers are getting their hands on the very weapons whose very existence are lambasted by gun control advocates: Tactical rifles, semiautomatic shotguns, and modern semiautomatic handguns.
Most troubling for the current administration’s agenda is the burgeoning online sector of the firearm market: Major ammo retailers are reporting an unprecedented increase in demand, with some outlets recording a 590% increase in sales. The bulk of those ammo sales are attributed to just a few firearms, inferred by the calibers they chamber: The AK-47 (which fires the 7.62x39mm round), the AR-15 (which fires the 5.56 NATO and .223 Remington cartridges) and 9mm Parabellum, the most popular handgun load. Many of these sales are going to historically anti-gun geographies, too, like New Jersey and California. The demand for guns and ammo has remained so high that law enforcement agencies have reported issues supplying their departments.
It’s guns like the AK-47 and AR-15, and the online gun industry, that the Biden administration targeted on the campaign trail. The administration’s nomination of Chipman showed they were serious. Yet enthusiast gun owners and even first-time buyers have struggled to get their hands on firearms. So much so, in fact, that they’re not merely buying firearms from Federal Firearms Licensed dealers (FFLs). They’re building them from scratch. And it’s entirely legal to do, as allowed under the Gun Control Act of 1968. Gun owners enjoy a relatively easy process in acquiring firearms in this manner, because the ATF can only define a particular component of a firearm as “the gun” itself. All other parts – barrels, buttstocks, trigger assemblies, and the like – are not regulated, and logically so. Rather than hunt down an AR-15 with a high premium attached to its sticker, for example, new gun owners are instead buying individual components – an AR15 lower parts kit and AR15 lower receiver – and coupling it with a barrel and the other parts required to produce a functioning rifle. But in this case, the firearm portion of the thing isn’t fabricated. So, it does not meet the ATF’s definition of a gun. Finish the thing requires tools and machinery, which enthusiast gun owners have taken to acquiring. Yes, the gun market is that strapped for inventory, and the demand for flexing gun rights among the Constitutionally minded (and those previously shy demographics weary of civil unrest) is that great.
Yet President Biden, unlike his predecessors, has taken his gun control advocacy a step further. He wants to reinstitute the national assault weapons ban and, as worded by his campaign site, effectively shut down the online sale of firearms and ammunition. In his nomination of Chipman, Biden stood in lockstep with the rescinded nominee’s intent to redefine non-firearm parts as firearms, requiring those who build guns privately to submit to the background check process through FFLs.
But Chipman’s nomination wasn’t merely pulled because Republicans stood in the way. In an evenly divided Congress, Chipman needed every vote from the Democratic party to pass the hearing gauntlet. Even this could not be guaranteed. This revelation represents a startling, if subtle, change in the gun control narrative: Moderate Democrat leaders, influenced by their base and barely holding onto the Senate, are shying away from these talking points which were once utterly safe, and which one bolstered their numbers at polls.
As the continuation of a draining pandemic and a shift in political directive distracts Washington the issue of guns, one thing is certain: This administration is losing support among its own base on a topic once guaranteed to drive turn-out on election day. It remains to be seen whether Biden’s plan – or even whether he can fill the ATF head’s chair – will be enacted by 2024.
Latest Trends in the Firearm Industry
Brian Wallace
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