INDIANAPOLIS -- Gun shop owners say they've seen a significant drop in sales since Donald Trump was elected president.
It's the first downward trend the market has seen since President Obama was in office. During Obama's presidency, gun shop owners recorded record sales numbers, especially in the last two years of his second term.
During December 2016, when gun sales are usually high because of holiday sales, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said they conducted 500,000 fewer background checks for gun sales than they did in 2015.
It remains to be seen what Trump’s impact on the market will be in the long run, but many in the industry say people seem less worried about their gun rights since Trump has taken office.
“We have a downturn in sales recently,” said Indy Arms Company Manager Mark Welter. “I think part of that is political due to the change in the political landscape as far as gun sales and gun rights.”
President Obama pushed for common sense gun laws, which Indy Trading Post Owner Brian Ludlaw said made people fear for their guns and their right to own them.
“During the Obama administration there would be days you’d see several spikes,” said Indy Trading Post Owner Brian Ludlaw. “There would be days they would come on TV, ‘ we are gonna present this bill, we are gonna do that law, we are gonna do this.’ (Those days) you’d have the shop filled with people buying everything they can.”
According to FBI data, the Industry saw 19 straight months of record year-over-year increases in the last two years of the Obama administration, and the number of companies license to make firearms jumped 362 percent over the decade between 2005 and 2015.
Although the numbers are lower year-over-year, background checks remain well above average in 2017.
March 2017 is the 7th highest month on record since the FBI began conducting background checks in 1998.
Indiana has consistently been in the top ten for background checks. In 2016 the FBI reports a total of 27,538,673 background checks and 1,435,725 of those were in the state of Indiana.
