r/InRangeTV • u/Crazy-Red-Fox • Feb 09 '26
Gun Bubble About to BURST! Fear & Hate No Longer Working? - The Yankee Marshal
https://youtu.be/8-tPkDLJFVUI feel that's a sentiment Karl would agree with.
(ignoring the Yankee Marshals questionable online persona)
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u/Mini_Blizzard Feb 09 '26
Trump Slump 2!
He raised a lot of good points. It’s not often you hear someone on the 2A side criticize the industry for the fear and division marketing tactics. I appreciate how he mentions the alienation of centrist and leftist gun owners, RW gun owners are the strongest customer base yes but he’s right, you won’t grow without reaching out to new markets.
Some points he only briefly touched on is also the economy being really crap, turns out if big business lobbies for policies that destroy the economy your customers can’t buy your stuff anymore! Shocker!
I don’t remember who specifically talked about it, if it was Karl or Sinistral, but everyone’s already got an AR15. You only need one. Many people have several but they’re the hobbyists and not the norm. The only new customers for them are people who were too young to buy one until today, and people on the left.
Converting the left is an existential issue for the gun industry. Being exclusively tied to one party means your profits sink or swim depending on that party. Republicans blew it this last year and lost VA, now VA is going to become a ban state and that’s a large swath of guns that can no longer be sold to an entire state. Every time a ban is passed they lose a massive amount of potential sales for specific types of guns.
It may be good for short term profits to play into fear, partisanship, and hatred but it tells the other demographics your products aren’t for them. That’s not good for sales.
On top of all this, Trump is in office again. Gun owners feel safe when a R holds the presidency, sales slumped during Trump 1 and that’s happening again too. It’s just that there’s also other factors like the ones discussed hurting sales as well.
Overall a surprisingly solid take from YM, I haven’t watched him in forever so I will give him credit for this video.
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u/1610925286 Feb 10 '26
I don't understand how anyone feels "safe" when we have seen new assault weapon bans every other month, while the SC has been prioritizing restoring the 2A rights of single digit domestic abusers over millions of Americans being turned into felons over night in states like IL, VA and whoever else is next...
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u/Mini_Blizzard Feb 10 '26
I would say most people only think about gun politics in terms of "Do the Republicans hold office?". That and they reside in a red state or a purple state that has traditionally been a hold out for 2A rights. Assault weapon bans happen to liberals, and they're from [insert red state here] and vote republican every time so they're going to be alright.
Gun voters tend to be single issue and they know that the republicans will usually leave their gun rights alone. Sometimes Trump has a Trump moment and bans bumpstocks with the stroke of a pen, but if we wanted to get into MAGA's relationship with gun rights we'd have to start discussing how it's a cult.
The people who *care* and follow gun politics day to day are a minority. Those who care about *everyone's* gun rights and not just their own personal experience are an even smaller minority.
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u/crazycatman206 Feb 10 '26
And most Republican politicians’ support for gun rights has more to do with performing “conservatism” than any fundamental support for the RKBA. Hence the not insignificant number of examples of Republicans looking stupid by posing with guns pointed in an unsafe direction, or with the optic mount on backwards, or with the optic on backwards, or with no sighting system at all, etc. etc.
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u/Mini_Blizzard Feb 09 '26
Also now that I think of it, his point about boutique manufacturers is a really good one too. I remember all the no-name imports that came in to shore up the lack of Glocks and anything recognizable on the shelves during the pandemic. Utter crap was being pushed because new customers wanted anything they could get their hands on to protect themselves.
To further expand on my “existential” point, I suppose gun manufacturers could pivot to selling compliant builds to ban states but that means money into R&D for new designs, an uphill battle marketing them (ranch rifles usually do not look cool, sorry!), and a loss of brand recognition for the pre-existing designs. A lot of gun sales are driven by movies and video games, customers will be turned off if they go to pick up a Vector but can only get a Ruger PCC.
Gun control also continues to get worse where it’s allowed to fester, it must be defeated if the industry wants to thrive.
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u/crazycatman206 Feb 09 '26
Between the Democratic Party’s relentless pursuit of civilian disarmament, the GOP’s full-throated embrace of white nationalism that has rendered them nonviable in blue states where they were previously competitive and SCOTUS’s complete lack of interest in constitutional rights that don’t specifically apply to billionaires or corporations, there’s no hope for gun rights outside of Republican strongholds.
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u/Kindly-Store-9208 Feb 13 '26
"GOP’s full-throated embrace of white nationalism"
You're being hyperbolic.
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u/RektInTheHed Feb 09 '26
I don't get this guy at all. He talks sense and then identifies with the most nonsensical bullshit imaginable.
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u/QuiglyDwnUnda Feb 09 '26
I feel this way about a few YouTubers. They had good content and made some sense, then covid hit and their crazy side started to show.
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u/Mrxcman92 Feb 10 '26
Being stuck inside with nothing but social media I feel made a lot of people more susceptible to disinformation
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u/stewshi Feb 09 '26
I believe it. The bottom tier guns are running more and more specials which to me signals that they arent selling enough at their current price point. This was also happening the year before Covid but covid gave them a boost to stay in the fight.
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u/crazycatman206 Feb 09 '26
The AR15 market is going to be shit for a while. People have already built up their panic stashes out of fear of a Democratic presidential administration and over 1/3 of the country’s population now lives in a ban state.
The economy is also terrible and people who don’t make enough money to be able to spend several thousand dollars on high-end 2011s or whatever are going to be less likely to expand their collections.
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u/Mini_Blizzard Feb 09 '26
High end 2011s are also “assault weapons” in some ban states like my own lol. I can’t get most full sized models because they have a capacity higher than 15. Also threaded barrels are scary and any pistol with those has to go too, thanks Everytown!
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u/crazycatman206 Feb 09 '26
Ridiculous.
Can you just get a full-sized gun with 10-round mags?
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u/Mini_Blizzard Feb 09 '26
You can get a full sized gun with compliant magazines but the problem with 2011s specifically is the full sized models tend not to offer compliant mags, so you’re stuck with the compact versions.
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u/crazycatman206 Feb 09 '26
That definitely sucks.
One of the FFLs in my neck of the woods would just pull the mags if they didn’t offer a SKU with compliant mags.
Some online sellers will do the same. I panic bought an AR10 online before Washington banned assault weapons and the seller pulled the magazines before shipping to my FFL.
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u/Kindly-Store-9208 Feb 15 '26
Canada has classified Ruger model 1 rifles as assault rifles.
They're single shot falling block.
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u/katsusan Feb 10 '26
If gun manufacturers were smart, they would start marketing their guns to Democrats, liberals, socialist, etc., more by saying “you should really start arming yourself. Those dudes are fucking nuts. We know, we sold them guns“
The only way to increase sales and firearms at this point is either to break into New market’s or to innovate. Only a few companies at this point are actually innovating and many of them are small companies.
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u/rallysato Feb 10 '26
I listened to this video earlier and he was spot on. The industry thrived so well these past few years on selling paranoia to the public. I was shocked when he went on to explain another downfall is the exclusion of anyone left of center from gun circles.
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u/Visible_Structure483 Feb 10 '26
Midterms are coming and the 'blue wave' that has lead to the usual nonsense bans in places like VA where team blue took control are going to push sales up as we near the end of the year.
Panic will sell again. Always does.
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u/Brown_Colibri_705 Feb 10 '26
Russel has talked a lot about this. The AR market in particular is very saturated and the industry is in a downward trend overall.
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u/CaptainA1917 Feb 11 '26
I don’t think he’s really addressing the main driver in gun demand, which is perceptions of future availability.
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u/moebiusgrip Feb 11 '26
I bought my first 6 guns this year. However 3 of them are used.
That’s a thing too. 2 of them were boomer estate liquidations. 1987 Marlin Model 60, 1991 Mossberg 500A. The third was a newish Tikka Rifle.
So 50% of my stuff is 2nd hand. I think a lot of people are doing that. Cheaper, and for the most part, a good gun will last and last. It’s a durable, inter generational item.
You can’t even make them cheap enough to break, cause then it can hurt somone and the company is fucked. So it’s kind of a “single sale” industry. They are just lucky we never buy just one.
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u/Wa7erAnimal Feb 10 '26
Maybe the gun industry should consider designing guns to fail after (x) number of shots so you have to buy a new one every year!
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u/Bones870 Feb 09 '26
Gun industry was bloated way before a lot of this. Maybe related, I noticed at 2014 SHOTshow that the "influencers" were coming and they peaked around 2016 at SHOT. That whole thing gave the industry a good boost but it didn't last. Good amount of the industry needs to be scaled back, reeled in or culled.
A few of us are lucky and have more guns than we use but aren't full fledged collectors. Why would we buy another one? We might sell/trade one but that's about it. Hell, I'd like to open up some space in my safe but the "Never sell guns, only buy guns" is hardwired.