Gun sales projected to rise after Joe Biden's win

Record background check for gun sales 1:28

New York (CNN Business) -

Joe Biden's projected victory at the White House could boost gun sales in what has already been a landmark year for gun manufacturers.

"Electing a Democratic president who has promised to toughen gun control legislation could very well drive increased demand for firearms," ​​said Rommel Dionisio, managing director of Aegis Capital.

Biden has spoken for a long time on the subject of gun control.

The president-elect has called arms manufacturers "the enemy" of the Democratic Party's gun control efforts.

His campaign website calls for a ban on the manufacture and future sale of assault weapons like the AR-15, a position he has held since a series of high-profile mass shootings in 2019.

• The debate on gun control in the US

This is what Trump and Biden think about gun control in the US 1:41

Dionysus says gun owners fear Democrats will pass gun control legislation, driving a predictable spike in sales before and after the election.

Gun sales skyrocketed after President Barack Obama's successful campaigns in 2008 and 2012. The previous record of 15.7 million guns sold in a calendar year was set in 2016. Polls at the time suggested that Hillary Clinton would win. the presidency, prompting many people to stock up on firearms, according to Mark Oliva, director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group that tracks and analyzes gun sales.

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A customer looks at long guns at Coliseum Gun Traders Ltd. in Uniondale, New York, on September 25, 2020.

Attempts to ban firearms

Clinton made stricter gun control measures a central part of her 2016 campaign in the wake of the 2015 mass shooting at the North Charleston AME church.

Obama tried and failed to convince Congress to pass stricter gun control measures after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Former Democratic President Bill Clinton signed into law a landmark ban on assault weapons in 1994, which expired 10 years later.

By contrast, Clinton's upset on President Trump's election day was followed by a lull in arms purchases known as the Trump downfall.

FBI background checks related to gun sales declined a record 8% in 2017. Revenues reported by Sturm Ruger, Vista, American Outdoor Brand and the Winchester unit of Olin Corp fell by a combined $ 610. million, or about 13%, that year.

Gun maker Remington Arms filed for bankruptcy in 2018, when industry sales fell a further 6.1%.

But the arms industry rebounded in 2019, when 13.9 million firearms were sold, according to Small Arms Analytics, an industry research firm.

Senate elections can be pivotal in gun sales

Oliva says the ongoing battle by Republicans and Democrats for control of the United States Senate will likely play a pivotal role in gun sales.

Georgia's US Senate candidates are expected to face two separate runoff elections in January after neither of them won a majority on Election Day.

If Democrats manage to secure both seats, there will be a 50-50 split between the parties in the Senate, as well as a majority in the House, making gun control legislation a possibility if Vice President Kamala Harris breaks a tie in the Senate.

"The industry is taking the word of the Biden campaign," Oliva said.

Biden's campaign and transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning about his gun policy.

Gun sales soared this year when Biden became the frontrunner to win the White House.

But the industry also got a boost from lockdowns from the covid-19 pandemic starting in March.

Many Americans fearful of a possible crime wave and related national social unrest that erupted after George Floyd's police murder bought guns for the first time.

Arms sales in 2020 hit a record before Election Day after maintaining an unprecedented pace for most of the year.

Oliva says that October firearms sales were up 60% compared to the same month a year earlier and more than 17 million guns were sold during the first 10 months of 2020.

Expect the trend to continue through December.

"We are approaching the holidays and hunting season, which are traditionally some of the strongest months for firearms sales," Oliva told CNN Business.

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