Raphael Stevens

Firearm sales, which soared to unprecedented levels in 2020 and 2021, are falling toward pre-pandemic levels.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimates that new gun ownership fell to 16 million in 2022, after reaching a high of 21 million in 2020.
Major firearm manufacturers are beginning to feel the financial strain but are assuring investors that their business models are prepared for the slowdown in demand.

A selection of AR-15-style rifles hangs on a wall at R-Guns store on Jan. 11, 2023, in Carpentersville, Illinois, a day after the state ban.
Armando L. Sanchez | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

The largest firearm manufacturers in the U.S. are facing a post-Covid slump.
Gunmakers saw top-line benefits in recent years as Americans experienced feelings of insecurity and instability during the pandemic, protests over police killings of unarmed Black people, and the 2020 presidential election. But the past year has seen gun sales fall precipitously as demand wanes.

American Outdoor Brands and Vista Outdoor have reported weaker sales in their shooting categories of late. Sturm, Ruger & Company, the largest publicly traded gunmaker in the U.S. by market value, reported a 28% year-over-year drop in net sales for fiscal third quarter, reporting $139.4 million, down from $178.2 million in the same period in 2021.
“These decreases are attributable to decreased consumer demand for firearms from the unprecedented levels of the surge that began in 2020 and remained for most of 2021,” CEO Christopher Killoy said of Sturm, Ruger’s November financials during an earnings call.
New gun ownership, as measured by the number of background checks for gun purchases, rose to 21 million in 2020, an all-time high for the industry, according to trade group National Shooting Sports Foundation. In 2019, that number had been just 13 million.
In 2021, background checks for gun purchases totaled 18.5 million, the industry’s second-biggest year. In 2022, they totaled 16.4 million.

NSSF warns background checks aren’t a perfect equivalent to new ownership because not all background checks are associated with individual sales of new guns, but they’re the best barometer of yearly sales trends. The organization has tracked the data since 2000.

“During the pandemic, people were worried about societal collapse in one way or another,” said Dru Stevenson, a law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston. “If you didn’t own a gun and you decided you better get one for self defense, you went and bought your gun, and now you’re done.”
Waning sales, alongside rising material and manufacturing costs, dented profitability for manufacturers.
Sturm, Ruger saw its gross margin tighten to 28% in the third quarter from 36% in the same period a year earlier. Sturm, Ruger & Company did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The company reports its next quarterly results Feb. 22.
“We’re seeing that as you come off the highs, the market is settling out and we’re finding that new normal,” said Mark Oliva, managing director of public affairs at NSSF. This “new normal,” added Oliva, is what firearm manufacturers are trying to get their shareholders to understand.
Gunmaker Smith & Wesson reported second-quarter net sales of $121 million, a decrease of 47.5% from the same quarter last year. However, the company added that those results are still 6.4% higher than the comparable quarter in fiscal 2020, pre-pandemic. Smith & Wesson did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The company is set to report its next batch of quarterly results March 2.
In a December conference call with investors, Smith & Wesson CEO Mark Smith said despite firearm sales reaching “more normal demand levels,” the company’s business model is “specifically designed for this” and has “effectively managed through these cycles before.”
Smith & Wesson’s stock is down 40% from a year ago, while Sturm, Ruger & Company saw its stock fall 19% in the same time frame.
Other gun manufacturers including American Outdoor Brands and Vista Outdoor, which purchased Remington Ammunition out of bankruptcy in late 2020, are seeing similar declines in gun sales.
American Outdoor Brands reported quarterly net sales were $54.4 million, a decrease of $16.3 million, or 23.1%, compared with net sales of $70.8 million for the same quarter last year, “resulting primarily from reduced demand in the shooting sports category.”
Vista Outdoor reported a sales decline of 4% to $432 million for its sporting products, which includes its Remington acquisition.
American Outdoor Brands and Vista Outdoor did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
Despite the drop in sales, Oliva said the “floor of this new market” remains “higher than the ceiling” of the last market. He said much of the losses seen now are likely to be recovered during the next surge in sales, which he said may come during the 2024 presidential election.

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Southwest Airlines pilots’ union is calling a vote that would give it the power to call for a potential strike, weeks after the carrier’s holiday meltdown.
Southwest and its pilots association have been in negotiations for a new contract for years.
The vote would give the union the authority to call for a strike, though there are high hurdles to airline strikes.

A Southwest Airlines passenger jet lands at Chicago Midway International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, on December 28, 2022.
Kamil Krzaczynski | AFP | Getty Images

Southwest Airlines pilots’ union plans to hold a vote that could give it the power to call a potential strike, a move that comes weeks after the carrier’s holiday meltdown further strained ties with its workers’ unions.
Even if Southwest’s pilots vote in favor of giving the union authority to call a strike, it wouldn’t be immediate and it would require clearance from the federal National Mediation Board.

Southwest and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association have been in negotiations for a new contract for years.
Union leaders have focused on better work rules and scheduling for Southwest workers. During the travel chaos last month, many pilots and flight attendants were stranded and had to wait on hold to reach schedulers or hotel services.
The union’s president, Casey Murray, said it was the first time it has held a strike authorization vote.
“This decision is not one based on emotion, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t angry,” Murray wrote Wednesday to pilots. He said the union is also negotiating “gratitude pay to compensate our Pilots who suffered through the meltdown.”
The strike vote will begin May 1, Murray said. Scheduling it for then means “we can best prepare for and give our customers time to book elsewhere so that they may have confidence in their summer vacations, honeymoons, and family outings,” he wrote to members.

“The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association’s call for an authorization vote does not affect Southwest’s operation or our ability to take care of our Customers,” Adam Carlisle, vice president of labor relations at Southwest, said in a statement. “We will continue to follow the process outlined in the Railway Labor Act and work under the assistance of the National Mediation Board toward reaching an agreement that rewards our Pilots and places them competitively in the industry.”
Southwest pilots’ union last year sought federal mediation in their labor talks. Carlisle said mediation was scheduled to resume Jan. 24.
Delta Air Lines pilots voted in October in favor of allowing the union to authorize a strike, though the union and company about a month later reached a preliminary deal for a new contract.
Labor negotiations are underway across the U.S. airline industry, with unions seeking higher pay and better working conditions after carriers’ attempt to quickly ramp up flying capacity as the Covid crisis eased strained staff and crews.
Southwest is scheduled to report quarterly results on Jan. 26, and executives are likely to face questions from analysts about potential labor deals and the impact of the thousands of holiday cancellations. The carrier has said the incident could have cost it more than $800 million.

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A shopper exits a Party City Holdco Inc. store in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018. Party City Holdco released earnings figures on November 8.

Party City and some of its U.S. units have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as the retailer looks to restructure its debt and better compete for sales as consumers’ wallets get hit by inflation.
According to a filing, the company said it struck an agreement on Tuesday to reduce its debt.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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“It’s going to be a miserable existence if we have worse and worse hurricanes, fires, droughts. It’s frightening,” Oliver Stone tells CNBC.
“We had the solution [nuclear power] … and the environmental movement, to be honest, just derailed it,” he says.
Stone’s documentary, “Nuclear Now,” adds to the ongoing debate and discussion about nuclear power and its role in the years ahead.

The environmental movement’s stance on nuclear power was “wrong” and derailed the sector’s development, according to the filmmaker Oliver Stone.
During an interview with CNBC’s Tania Bryer at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Stone — who’s made a new documentary called “Nuclear Now” — was asked where his passion to tackle the climate crisis came from.

“Passion comes from the fact that … it’s my children, hopefully grandchildren soon,” Stone, who was speaking to CNBC on Tuesday afternoon, replied.
“But what are they going to do? It’s going to be a miserable existence if we have worse and worse hurricanes, fires, droughts. It’s frightening.”
“We had the solution [nuclear power] … and the environmental movement, to be honest, just derailed it. I think the environmental movement did a lot of good, a lot of good … [I’m] not knocking it, but in this one major matter, it was wrong. It was wrong.”  
“And what they did was so destructive, because by now we would have 10,000 nuclear reactors built around the world and we would have set an example like France set for us, but no one … followed France, or Sweden for that matter.”

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France has been a major player in nuclear power for decades, while nuclear power accounts for roughly 30% of Sweden’s power supply, according to the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority.

Stone’s documentary is based on “A Bright Future,” a book by Joshua S. Goldstein and Staffan A. Qvist.
The Academy Award winner, who has made statements deemed by many to be extremely controversial, is best known for films such as “Platoon”, “Born on the Fourth of July” and “Wall Street.”
His film on nuclear adds to the ongoing debate and discussion about nuclear power and its role in the years ahead.
The International Energy Agency states that “nuclear power has historically been one of the largest contributors of carbon-free electricity globally.”
It adds that “while it faces significant challenges in some countries, it has significant potential to contribute to power sector decarbonisation.”
Elsewhere, environmental organizations such as Greenpeace are critical. “Nuclear power is touted as a solution to our energy problems, but in reality it’s complex and hugely expensive to build,” its website states.
“It also creates huge amounts of hazardous waste,” Greenpeace says. “Renewable energy is cheaper and can be installed quickly. Together with battery storage, it can generate the power we need and slash our emissions.” More

Over 200 millionaires are calling on the elite attendees of this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos to “tackle extreme wealth” and “tax the ultra-rich” to help relieve the cost of living strain off ordinary households.  
“Tax the ultra rich and do it now,” an open letter urges.
“It’s simple, common-sense economics. It is an investment in our common good and a better future that we all deserve, and as millionaires we want to make that investment.”

Occupy Wall Street

Over 200 millionaires are urging the elite echelons in attendance at this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos to “tackle extreme wealth” and “tax the ultra-rich” to help relieve the cost-of-living strain off ordinary households.  
The Patriotic Millionaires — self-described as “a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America” — called for similar measures in their campaign last year.

“Tax the ultra rich and do it now,” the group asks in a new “Cost of Extreme Wealth” open letter on Wednesday, also endorsed by PMUK, Tax Me Now and Millionaires for Humanity. “It’s simple, common-sense economics. It is an investment in our common good and a better future that we all deserve, and as millionaires we want to make that investment,” it said.
The message warns of an “age of extremes” marked by rising poverty, wealth inequality, anti-democratic nationalism, depressed ecological conditions and dwindling opportunities for average workers to make a living wage.
The letter questions the mission of the World Economic Forum in absence of concrete measures:
“The current lack of action is gravely concerning. A meeting of the ‘global elite’ in Davos to discuss ‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World’ is pointless if you aren’t challenging the root cause of division. Defending democracy and building cooperation requires action to build fairer economies right now – it is not a problem that can be left for our children to fix.”
The campaign numbers 206 signatories from 12 countries, including Abigail Disney, an heiress to the multimedia entertainment empire, and actor Mark Ruffalo.

 “Extreme wealth is eating our world alive. It is undermining our democracies, destabilizing our economies, and destroying our climate,” Disney said. “But for all their talk about solving the world’s problems, the attendees of Davos refuse to discuss the only thing that can make a real impact — taxing the rich.”
She criticized, “I’ve been to Davos. I’ve sat in the same room with some of the richest and most powerful people in the world as they talk about how they can make a difference, so I can say this with firsthand experience – Davos is a farce. Until Davos attendees start talking about taxing the rich, the entire gathering will remain a very public example of how out of touch they really are.”
CNBC has reached out to the Davos World Economic Forum for comment.
A study produced by the Patriotic Millionaires finds that a progressive annual wealth tax — modeled at 2% on individuals worth $5 million, 3% on those with a net $50 million, and 5% on the ultra-rich with more than $1 billion — could have raised in excess of $1.7 trillion in 2022.
The world’s richest 1% have accrued nearly two-thirds of all new global wealth over the last two years, amassing $26 trillion out of $42 trillion created in that period, Oxfam found in a recent report.
Households around the world have been struggling to keep pace with surging costs in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, tightening monetary policies and fuel price hikes stoked by sanctions against Russian energy supplies. Just one leader of the Group of Seven global economic — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — was set to attend the Davos proceedings this week, as several of his counterparts battle the cost-of-living crisis. More