http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzErujpv0sU
The NSSF reports that sporting arms and ammunition imports into these here United States declined 19 percent in the second financial quarter. From April to June, this year vs, last, firearms-related imports totalled $273m, down from $337.1m. Rifles sales rose 26.3 percent ($27.1m vs. $34.2m). Shotgun sales soared by 23.4 percent ($38.3m vs. $47.2m). Muzzleloaders sales climbed seven percent ($6m to $6.5m). The biggest loser: imported ammo, down 42.2 percent ($151.2m to $87.4m). Shotgun-shells sales sank 48.7 percent ($5m to $2.5m) while handgun imports fell 13.1 percent ($109.5m to $95.1m).
Not surprising when you consider that most of the European companies are manufacturing here in order to capitalize on the strength of the Euro, the weakness of the dollar and import barriers that disappear when their guns and ammo are made here.
Pretty much this. If they manufacture firearms inside the U.S., then they have to follow one set of completely arbitrary and bogus rules, and if they manufacture outside the U.S. and then import them, the same guns have to meet a higher, more arbitrary, and similarly bogus standard.
Said regulations are why imported Glock pistols had to be shipped to the U.S. with the cheapest junk adjustable sights that it is possible to make — without said sights, they wouldn’t have been importable in the first place. The same regulations are also why we haven’t seen pistols like the Glock 28 stateside.
One of the larger European shotshell manufacturers (Maxim’s Rio brand) set up shop loading 12 & 20 in Tennessee. Also, Armscor recently set up a modest ammo plant in Montana.
If you think US regulations are arbitrary and bogus, ask Beretta about the Italian inspection scheme…finished product sitting in warehouses for months.