Gun industry in freefall in America. What is going on?

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Gun sales have tumbled in America since Trumps arrival? Now that’s a headline I did not think I would be reading about on America. I thought gun sales going up was guaranteed from day one in January 2016. Not so. They certainly spiked on Obama’s 2008 election win as rednecks feared retribution but Trump? It’s been called the ‘Trump Slump’ in the weapons industry as top US gun makers have seen sales tumble between 35 and 70% last year. The iconic Smith & Western had a 90% fall. But last week it got very serious for the industry, none other than Remington, a 200-year-old American company that supplied weapons in the Civil War, filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In America some companies tactically do this to stay on top of debt and Remington fully expect $700 million of their $995 million debt will be written off if they come out of the other side still kicking. But sales have collapsed. Gun ownership has declined sharpish since the 1970s and the Vietnam days and there are fewer gun owners than ever there. Fewer people are hunting, younger people are less interested in gun ownership and the gun industry has had little success in its attempts to appeal to women and minorities. The US has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world with 88 guns for every 100 people. 3% of the population owns an average of 17 guns each, with an estimated 7.7 million super-owners in possession of 140 guns apiece. The right to bear arms nonsense is perhaps hitting home as exactly that when you see graphic pictures of little kids cut to pieces at Sandy hook School, creaming for mum as their arm hangs off. In America if you have a mental episode you can reach for an automatic weapon. In the U.K we just go down the pub and get drunk and throw a punch. Why on Earth American civilians demand the right to own machine guns is beyond comprehension outside of America. I think Las Vegas was the final straw though, a white redneck shooting white rednecks bringing it home to the Republican right that with automatic weapons out there we are all targets now. Although gun sales are falling gun deaths are not. Yes, one third of the 30,000 annual deaths are suicide and the other third black-on-black, but 33% is the general public. 50 toddlers a year discharge a domestic firearm and injure family members in the States. I firmly believe Americans want the right to bear arms as they are insecure and genuinely do fear home invasion by black men, even if they live in Idaho. Yes it’s macho and sexy to have a gun and shoot at targets and stuff but surely its something to do at weekends and have your guns locked away in a gun club for safety? If Brits want to shoot a firearm and we are not a farmer we have to go to France! And guess what, we have just 50 gun deaths a year here.