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Their wrongful death suit is pending with the Connecticut Supreme Court. Remington also has been sued by family members of Sandy Hook victims. Related: Why AR-15-style rifles are mass shooters' go-to weapons Remington makes the Bushmaster that was used in a mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012. Remington's AR-15-style Bushmaster, for example, was the type of gun that was used in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. That type of gun has also come under increased scrutiny in recent years by gun control advocates because of its use in mass shootings. But a lack of sales has left manufacturers like Remington with a backlog of inventory and weak demand.
The modern sporting rifle is what the industry calls the military-style semiautomatic rifles that are widely available to civilian consumers in the United States.ĭionisio said firearms retailers and distributors had stocked up on rifles before the election because they expected Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, to win. "I still think Remington's bankruptcy is not only reflective of the overall downturn in the firearms market over the past 16 months, but also the particular difficulty that producers of modern sporting rifles have been seeing during this same time," he added. Related: Gun sales plunge for Smith & Wesson ownerīut Remington may have been hit especially hard because of its association with "modern sporting rifle" brands like the Bushmaster, said Rommel Dionisio, a gun industry analyst for Aegis Capital Corp. Publicly traded competitors like American Outdoor Brands, Sturm Ruger ( RGR)and Vista Outdoor ( VSTO), have all reported massive declines in sales this year. Those fears dissipated after the election of Trump, a Republican who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association. The industry experienced record sales during President Barack Obama's tenure, when gun advocates feared restrictive gun control measures. Remington representatives did not return messages from CNNMoney, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry group, declined to comment on the bankruptcy.īut it's a significant setback for an industry that has hit a financial slump during President Donald Trump's time in office. Related: Remington files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Its owner, the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, has said it will give up that ownership once restructuring is complete. The company, which had 2,700 employees at the time of the filing, plans to reduce its debt by $620 million through its Chapter 11 filing. It says it will keep making guns through the bankruptcy process. Remington is now headquartered in North Carolina and has seven factories in different states. It returned to its role as military arms supplier during the two World Wars. After the war, the company shifted its client base to hunters and western frontier settlers. He left the company to his three sons, who became major suppliers to the Union Army. Remington II died at the outset of the Civil War. That factory, which got its start producing thousands of guns for the Army, forms the economic foundation of Ilion and much of the surrounding Mohawk Valley. The company still produces guns at a sprawling brick factory in Illion, New York, that has existed since the mid-1800s. According to company history, Remington II "handcrafted his first rifle barrel at his father's forge, and carried it to Utica to have a local gunsmith fabricate it into a flintlock rifle." That was the start of a business that led him to forge and sell his rifles to gunsmiths throughout the country.