Gun market reflects military influence

After attending the annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show a couple of weeks back, I can now, with full confidence, predict the future of firearms in America is black.

Or it just might be one of a multitude of digital camouflage patterns offered in an equal number of color schemes. And my guess is you and your kids soon will be hunting big game with firearms that look a lot like something you see on nightly news reports from Iraq, Afghanistan or a police standoff on the other side of town. Perhaps you are already.

I first attended the SHOT Show in 1993. Filling the display booths were traditional firearms — bolt actions, lever guns, pumps and semi-automatics — dressed with stocks made from the finest woods. Products for those with an interest in law enforcement and military arms — or firearms built for the public but based on those platforms — could be found only in a small area of the display floor.

Not so in 2010. This year, the floor was dominated by firearms built on the AR-15 platform or patterned after other military arms. Even the large manufacturers of traditional sporting arms are now offering models with what most people might consider a military flare but chambered for traditional hunting rounds such as the .270 Winchester. The traditional firearms were still present, but in noticeably less prominence than years past.

One company’s spokesperson said the surging interest in sporting arms built on military designs is being driven by members of the armed forces returning from today’s battlefronts. They are seeking rifles boasting traits with which military personnel are comfortable and proficient.

Another factor in the growing “black gun” market is the current generation of young hunters who have come of age while the country is involved in a televised war. Moreover, these are firearms like those they use in the video games they play.

What we are seeing is a transition in the market similar to those that followed World Wars I and II. After returning from the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific, veterans sought out firearms with which they had become familiar — bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles. As far back as I can remember, my dad has hunted with a Springfield A303, the rifle responsible for introducing the popular 30-06 cartridge to the world during WWI. It was a military-issue firearm he bought through the National Rifle Association for about $20 in the early 1960s, probably about the time he left the Army reserves. He had the rifle “sporterized” so it no longer reflects its military history, but it is what it is.

It didn’t take manufacturers long to learn what customers wanted, and military arms were soon redesigned to meet the needs of America’s hunters and recreational shooters. The same step is being made today as the market adjusts to changing customer demands and demographics. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, rifles built on the AR-15 platform are among the country’s top-selling firearms.

I don’t think what we know today as traditional rifles and shotguns with beautiful furniture will go away completely, but I do think they soon will be among the minority of guns sold.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His “In the Outdoors” column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at dougnielsen@att.net.