Posted on 04/20/2012 1:39:42 AM PDT by neverdem
In a February 2012 fund-raising appearance, President Barack Obama expressed his desire to keep America’s assembly lines humming. “I want to make sure the next generation of manufacturing isn’t taking root just in Asia or Europe,” he told a crowd of supporters. “I want it taking root in factories in Detroit and Pittsburgh and Cleveland and California.…I want to reward companies that are investing here in the United States and creating jobs all throughout this country.” Perhaps because the president was speaking in San Francisco, where most of the local factories had long ago been converted into luxury condos for venture capitalists and software designers, he was short on specifics. Or maybe he just couldn’t think of any American manufacturing industries that still seemed salvageable.
Two weeks earlier, however, a federal agency had released a report that suggested at least one component of the manufacturing sector was not only still making stuff in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, California, and thousands of other places in America, but making more of it than it had in decades. According to the “Annual Firearms Production and Export Report” from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), American manufacturers produced 5,459,240 handguns, rifles, shotguns, and miscellaneous ordnance in 2010. (To comply with the Trade Secrets Act, the BATFE waits one year to publish these data; numbers for 2010 therefore are not published until January 2012.) It was the second year in a row the industry had attained numbers not seen since the glory days of the late Carter administration.
A little more than a decade ago, the domestic firearms industry was staggering like a villain on the wrong side of Dirty Harry’s .44 Magnum. “The future has never been more uncertain for America’s oldest manufacturing industry,” a Businessweek cover story reported in 1999. Flat...
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Just a thought. If Trayvon Martin had owned a CCW permit, he might be alive today. /s
While CNC equipment has helped the small gunmaker as the article says, it’s just that CNC equipment exists. After all, CNC equipment has been around the US machine industry in ever-larger numbers since the 80’s.
What’s happened is that US manufacturing is on the third wave of CNC equipment, and now some of the older equipment is available in the used market for very reasonable prices. You can find a for-real vertical machining center (eg, a Fadal 40x20 mill) for as little as $10K. A brand-new Haas mill would run $70K, which is enough money to completely outfit a gunsmith’s shop with classic manual machinery.
The reason why the older equipment works is that guns don’t demand especially tight tolerances... so an older machine that can hold maybe 0.001” tolerance might be unacceptable in some sectors of manufacturing, but it’ll work for making guns just fine...
CNC?
At least there’s one sector of the economy Obama really can take credit for...
Yes, the explosion in gun manufacturing is good for the economy, but it especially good for the U.S. Constitution.
The ability for about any small size machine shop to be able manufacture weaponry is a big plus for staying armed.
The weak link isn’t arms though, its ammunition. Making cased ammunition from scratch is much more difficult than making the gun that it goes in.
Yet I work for a company that has over ten million dollars worth of extrusion equipment and they won't let us buy a vertical band saw for our shop.
Martin was 17 which is 4 years too young in most states to own a pistol. He couldn’t have legally carried yet if he wanted to.
we have one - …..from the 40’s……sits right next to the cloth clad wire table saw
I have been looking to take advantage of this from an investment stand point. The only publicly traded company I could find was Olin (OLN). Any suggestions as to other companies?
Some other ones that come immediately to mind are Ruger and Smith & Wesson. Perhaps also ATK (Alliant Techsystems), although they have a more diversified product line.
Any truth to the rumor that Wal-Mart is selling the Bushmaster version of the CAR-15 for around $500.00?
I’m asking because right now I’m too lazy to drive over there and see for myself. Wait a second, I can always use some more 12 gauge & .22 bricks, but they don’t open until 9:00. Oh well.
Sturm Ruger Stock is up like 360%
Yep. Ignoring the chemical components, just stamping out the cases requires large and specialized machinery.
“Making cased ammunition from scratch is much more difficult than making the gun that it goes in.”
“Yep. Ignoring the chemical components, just stamping out the cases requires large and specialized machinery.”
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A fact I’m sure our Communist masters are WELL aware of.
I just hope knowledgeable parties on OUR side are considering some workable solutions to this critical choke point.
Some people reload.
That is irrelevant to this discussion. You can only reload if you can get the components. We're talking about the difficulty in manufacturing the components themselves. Could your average reloader produce primers, smokeless powder, cases, etc. economically from non-regulated materials?
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