American gun-maker Colt Defense has filed for bankruptcy protection, having “failed to win the support of bondholders for a debt reshaping agreement.” It adds: “Colt plans to try to reduce its $355 million debt burden via a court supervised auction of its business, to generate proceeds to repay some of its lenders.”
It appears, according to the Wall Street Journal, that Colt missed the post-2008 ‘Obama surge’ enjoyed by other U.S. gun manufacturers. Whipped up by NRA warnings that the Democratic president intended to toughen gun control, consumers cleared gun store shelves of ammunition and weapons. Better-prepared manufacturers such as Glock saw sales rise sharply. … Colt’s Manufacturing, for its part, offered only a limited selection of the handguns so much in demand. Meanwhile, a contract with the U.S. military ended in 2013.
You won’t see tears for gun manufacturers on this blog. It is rather good news, except for the fact that there is a buyer for the remains of the company, called Sciens Capital management. The slaughter will continue, you can be sure.
Non-fatal injuries by gunfire in 2013: 84,258
Deaths by gunfire in 2013: 33,636
We are assured that this was what the Founders intended and expected. It’s written in the Constitution, isn’t it?*
(Whoops! Apologies. Americans don’t do irony.)
The last bit about Americans not doing irony is hilliarious! (But also true.) As for the gun manufacturer, there may be quite a few jobs lost as a result of this bankruptcy, but they will likely be replaced by other companies expanding in order to fill the new gap in the market.
Many Americans will continue to justify buying guns by saying that they are the best means of self defence. In response, I would point out that: if you own a gun you are statistically more likely to be killed by one, the rate of gun ownership is in decline- with the gun companies being kept alive by remaining gun owners buying more guns, violence in America is highly concentrated in certain inner cities- if you don’t live in one of those, you don’t have much to worry about. I would also point out the (unlikely but still possible) scenario of someone other than yourself getting hold of your gun and using it. A highly armed society is generally a bad thing, and if you buy a gun, you are contributing to the problem.