While the so-called “mainstream” media has attempted to make a Donald Trump presidential win seem like doom and gloom for firearm sales, many in the industry, such as Sportsman’s Warehouse CEO John Schaefer, don’t see it that way.
Despite dire predictions to the contrary, Schaefer sees nothing but the upside to the Trump victory, since the Second Amendment has dodged a full-frontal assault from Hillary Clinton. In fact, absent the onerous regulations on firearms that would have marked a Hillary Clinton presidency, Schaefer believes the deluge of new participants in the shooting sports over the past few years will boost future sales.
“All those people that joined became first-time purchasers in 2012 and into 2013 … it is clear that those people are really now buying their second, third and fourth firearm, as they get comfortable with techniques of shooting both a handgun and a long rifle, and become interested in the different types of calibers of rifles, the different types of make-ups of rifles, whether it be a bolt-action rifle or a modern sporting rifle,” Schaefer told SGBonline.com. “So they’re starting to act like longer-term buyers in the shooting sports. And I think that bodes really well for the industry on a go-forward basis, just from an organic growth standpoint.”
