Mediaboss Marketing

While U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to "totally" protect the Second Amendment has eased gun owners' worried minds, his lax stance on firearms is causing a negative impact on the outdoor retail industry.

The F.B.I. said it conducted 2.23 million background checks in February, representing a 14% decline from February 2016. Background checks were down 20% in January and 17% in December, as gun owners no longer feel the need to rush to stock up on firearms as they did when former President Barack Obama was pushing for stricter federal gun laws.

During his campaign, Trump was even endorsed by The National Rifle Association (NRA).

But, as gun sales drop, outdoor retailers across the board are feeling the pressure.

Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) said on its recent fourth-quarter earnings call that its outdoor category was particularly pressured, "driven in part by a decline in hunting."

"We did say that the hunting business was difficult," Dick's CEO Edward Stack said in response to an analyst's question on individual categories. "That hunting business...it continues to struggle and struggled in the fourth quarter, both firearms and a bit from an ammunition standpoint."

Olin (OLN) , owner of Winchester Ammunition, reported a 20% slip in ammo sales in its recent fourth quarter. In a December report, Wunderlich Securities analyst Rommel Dionisio estimated that firearms sales will "likely slow" in 2017. Looks like consumers are proving his prediction right.

Gander Mountain, one of the largest outdoor retailers in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 on Friday, listing $500 million to $1 billion in assets and liabilities.

Gander Mountain, which touts itself as being "America's Firearms Supercenter," blamed its filing on slowing foot traffic. The company operates about 110 stores in 26 states in the U.S.

To combat its own slipping gun sales, American Outdoor Brands (AOBC) is trying a different tactic in separating itself from the firearms industry. For instance, it changed its name from Smith & Wesson, a brand too associated with guns.

At its investor day in January, American Outdoor said it would be expanding on acquisitions of companies that are not so heavily focused on firearms to create long-term value. The move follows its recent acquisitions of knife maker Taylor Brands and Ultimate Survival Technologies, the manufacturer of survival, rescue, life support and disaster preparedness equipment.

Shares of American Outdoor have fallen about 15% since Trump was elected to office.

Trump and your taxes: Watch Jim Cramer lead a roundtable discussion on how investors and retirement savers should position their portfolio.

View post:
How Pro Gun President Trump Is Wreaking Havoc on Sporting Goods Retailers - TheStreet.com

In Florida last week while the nation was mesmerized by the non-stop news that Americas government has been infiltrated by Ruskie operatives with a veritable cadre of Russian spies firmly ensconced in the White House, the states Supreme Court upheld as constitutional a Florida law that prohibited open carry of firearms in public. A practice that has been banned since the nations founding and just recently imposed by NRA-indebted Republicans to enrich the gun industry.

The Florida High Courts Justices ruled that the Second Amendment does not protect that ridiculous open carry practice and it was another setback for the NRAs attempts to force the nations courts to abolish any and all firearm restrictions as unconstitutional. The Florida High Court concluded, like many other state and federal courts around the nation, that the Second Amendment cannot be read to prohibit states from regulating the various ways guns are kept and used.

The Court heard the challenge to the Florida statute after a man was arrested and charged with openly carrying a handgun while strolling alongside a U.S. Highway. The ruling began by acknowledging that virtually any adult who has no physical impairment or felony record can carry a gun in public in Florida; it just has to be concealed. It was too much of a restriction for the Florida gun fanatic who had to show off his manhood in public and cried foul. He argued that specifically; the Second Amendment protected his right to openly carry firearms and that the Florida law was an unconstitutional violation of his 2nd Amendment rights.

The man claimed that according to the U.S. Supreme Courts ruling in D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago created an individuals right to keep a handgun in the home for self-defense. The frightened gun enthusiast said if an individual has a constitutional right to keep a handgun at home for protection, it is just obvious it also granted him the constitutional right to walk around in public with his gun in plain view for all to see.

The Florida High Court used the exact same analysis deployed by virtually every Federal Circuit Court in considering the NRAs 2nd Amendment challenges to a states firearm rules. The Court asked:

Whether the law burdens conduct protected by the Second Amendment based on a historical understanding of [its] scope, or whether it falls into a historically unprotected category of prohibitions.

The court found that the law did not fall into a historically unprotected category, and instead implicated the central component of the Second Amendmentthe right to self-defense.

The Courts majority quoted an influential law review article and noted what historians, not NRA historical revisionists, have known for a couple of centuries:

[T]he notion of a strong tradition of a right to carry outside of the home rests on a set of historical myths and a highly selective reading of the evidence. The only persuasive evidence for a strong tradition of permissive open carry is limited to the slave South.

In a recent 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, the Court noted that firearm restrictions that fall outside historical protections for the right to bear arms are presumptively constitutional. However, since the concept of open carry has no firm tradition in our legal history, there is more than enough justification for the constitutionality of open carry bans.

Last weeks ruling may not have been a giant win for gun safety advocates, but it was a major defeat for gun fanatics simply because they seem to never lose; at least not any losses the media is willing to report. The Florida Supreme Court decision was handed down barely a few weeks after a 4th Circuit decision ruled that the Second Amendment does not protect assault weapons, and within a year of the 9th Circuit Courts ruling that there is no constitutional right to concealed carry; something that has been widely banned since the nations founding.

As noted by Marc Joseph Stern at Slate, because the Supreme Court clearly has little appetite to expand Heller and McDonald, these decisions will probably stand as the last word on the subject.

Gun safety advocates can possibly take a measure of solace knowing that no matter how remote the chance to achieve much in the way of legislative victories in the NRA-controlled Congress, these few court rulings are highly unlikely to be overturned by the Supreme Court; unless Trump disbands the High Court and replaces it with the governing board of the NRA. It is something that is not remotely implausible.

2nd Amendment, florida supreme Court, gun safety, guns, NRA, open carry

Go here to read the rest:
Opinion: Florida Supreme Court Rules Open Carry is Not Protected ... - PoliticusUSA

AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

FYI , AR-15 Rifles Are No Longer Included in Second Amendment AmmoLand Shooting Sports News Buckeye, AZ -(Ammoland.com)- By now you've probably heard about the Federal Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit's horrible anti-rights decision declaring that so-called assault weapons and high-capacity magazines are not protected by the Second ...

More here:
FYI , AR-15 Rifles Are No Longer Included in Second Amendment - AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

Pennsylvania Court: Automatic Knives not Protected by Second Amendment AmmoLand Shooting Sports News An appeal was filed shortly after the conviction, based solely on the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The appeal did not reference Pennsylvania's state Constitution. Pennsylvania has a strong right to bear arms provision in ...

Go here to read the rest:
Pennsylvania Court: Automatic Knives not Protected by Second Amendment - AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

Subscribe today for full access on your desktop, tablet, and mobile device.

Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about

Where do you draw the line on the spectrum of weapons between, say, rocks and any weapons of mass destruction?

Try Another

Audio CAPTCHA

Image CAPTCHA

Help

CancelSend

A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

CJ Letter 2:23 p.m. ET March 10, 2017

Nuclear explosion(Photo: RomoloTavani, Getty Images/iStockphoto)

I am curious if Mr. Milby - Reader's Forum "Weapons of war protected by Second Amendment" March 8, 2017- believes that Second Amendment rights extend to nuclear weapons. If not, where does he draw the line on the spectrum of weapons between, say,rocks and anyweapons of mass destruction?In addition tonuclear bombs, are chemical weapons covered by the Second Amendment? What about lasers from satellites? Ballistic missiles? As a private citizen, I just want to know what I and my fellow citizens have a right to own and use in order to defendourselves from tyranny, government or otherwise. Or, maybe the interpretation of the Second Amendment should be more nuanced than Mr. Milby proclaims.

Christopher Rife

Louisville40291

Read or Share this story: http://cjky.it/2mu9SES

3:45

3:13

3:46

3:46

3:28

4:00

1:53

2:18

6:56

7:28

3:15

3:05

3:51

3:38

3:12

2:41

3:38

2:31

3:22

3:45

1:33

1:56

3:24

3:03

3:39

3:14

3:37

3:56

3:01

2:19

0) { %>

0) { %>

See the rest here:
Second Amendment's illogical conclusion | Letter - The Courier-Journal