Donald Trump isn't as good for the gun industry as Barack Obama was. America's oldest gun manufacturer has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection only one day after the March for Our Lives rally drew nationwide attention to the growing call for gun control.
Remington Arms Co. and its parent company, Remington Outdoors, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday night, according to USA Today. The company claimed through its chief financial officer Stephen Jackson that they had seen a significant decline in revenue and sales over the previous year.
One possible explanation has been that, without being able to alarm potential customers with the prospect of mass gun confiscation by a Democratic president, Remington has found its sales to have lagged. This could explain Jackson's observation about how the "overall business and industry environments continue to cause significant financial hardship."
Although it seems to be a coincidence that Remington's announcement came one day after the March for Our Lives rallies on Saturday, Remington has not always steered clear of political controversy. After it was ascertained that the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting had used a weapon manufactured by Remington — namely, the Bushmaster XM15-E2S — the company faced a firestorm of criticism, even though it was ultimately found to have not done anything wrong.
The Parkland school shooting, although far from the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, has nevertheless seemed to have an unusually galvanizing effect on American politics. In addition to prompting mass protests for gun control and making icons out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors, it has changed the way some companies do business in the post-Parkland world. The most conspicuous example was Dick's Sporting Goods, which after learning that they had sold a shotgun used by the Parkland shooter (though not in the shooting itself) announced that they would stop selling assault-style rifles and high capacity magazines, as well as refuse to sell guns to anyone under 21.
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