TheGunBlog.ca — Canada’s firearm industry is headed for a second-straight mixed year as the government considers ending handgun ownership and Quebec police threaten to criminalize hunters who don’t register their rifles and shotguns, while central Canada does well, businesses said.

Many sport shooters are worried about bans and are holding off buying new guns, manufacturers and retailers said yesterday at a trade show at the Toronto Congress Centre organized by U.S.-based Big Rock Sports LLC, Canada’s second-biggest gun distributor.

Market Is ‘Mushy’

“The market’s just been mushy,” Dave Jones, director of Canadian sales for SIG Sauer Inc., a U.S. manufacturer of handguns and rifles that could be prohibited, told TheGunBlog.ca. “I think people are truly scared about what your government is going to do.”

Canada has about 4,500 businesses that sell guns, ammunition, or both, ranging from specialized one-man gunsmiths to national chains such as Canadian Tire Corp. with hundreds of stores across the country.

The country’s 2.2 million licensed hunters, sport shooters buy almost 1,000 guns a day on average.

The hunting and shooting industry in Saskatchewan alone contributes some $300 million to the provincial economy each year, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported this week.

Quebec Slump

Quebec’s  new firearm purchases have plunged as owners flood the market with used guns at low prices to avoid registration, said Donald Turcotte, who is based in Quebec and manages sales for The Evans Group, a distributor of firearms and shooting gear. He said the Maritimes are also lower than 2017, while western Canada is doing better.

“The east and Alberta are down, the Prairies and Ontario are up,” Wes Winkel, the president of the Canadian Sporting Arms and Ammunition Association, told TheGunBlog.ca.

Federal government regulations are weighing on hunters and sport shooters for a second year.

Trudeau, Shopify

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proposed Bill C-71 in March as a law to ban rifles owned by as many as 15,000 lawful shooters and to make it harder to buy, sell, own or transport firearms. Then in August he ordered an examination of a “full ban on handguns and assault weapons.”

Two weeks before Trudeau announced the possible bans, Ottawa-based Shopify Inc., a provider of websites for online shopping, said it’s kicking gun companies off its platform, sending a handful of Canadian stores scrambling.

Markings, Floods, Fires

A year ago, Winkel called 2017 a “very fractured year.”

The mood in the first half of 2017 was soured by the government’s pending Firearms Marking Regulations to restrict gun imports. Then British Columbia and Alberta were hit by wildfires and floods that shut down hunting and recreational shooting. Wholesale Sports Canada Ltd., a chain in the western provinces, closed. Ontario and the central provinces did well.

This year some businesses are thriving.

Mossberg, Smith & Wesson

“Sales are good,” Winkel said about the store he owns in Ontario, Ellwood Epps Sporting Goods, one of Canada’s largest independent gun shops. “We’re mainly up from 2017.”

Big Rock, the No. 2 gun distributor in Canada behind North Sylva Co., is seeing firearm sales up 30 percent this year from 2017, helped in part by the acquisition of Maurice Sporting Goods, said Ian Greig, national accounts manager.

Big Rock supplies stores across Canada and the U.S. with guns made by CZ, Mossberg, Remington, Ruger, SIG Sauer, Smith & Wesson and other brands. It also distributes Federal Premium ammunition and Magpul accessories.

Yesterday’s trade show set a record high for the number of retailers attending one of Big Rock’s events in Canada, Grieg said.

‘Get Rid of Them’

The distributor is still concerned the firearm-marking regulations will hurt business. The government updated its plans yesterday after having deferred them for a ninth time this month.

“I’m hoping they get rid of them altogether,” Grieg said.

The Quebec market in some cases is helping retailers in other regions as shooters buy outside the province to avoid registration. The Quebec police have threatened to pull firearm Possession and Acquisition Licences from people who don’t register, a move some say is illegal.

Tiffany, Hello Kitty

Sales at Tenda Canada Inc. have been “level” this year compared with last year, said Steve Kuang, who owns the online gun store based near Toronto. He said he’s preparing new marketing efforts for next year to attract women and youth to the shooting sports, such as rifles painted in Tiffany blue and Hello Kitty pink.

Even at SIG Sauer, whose guns are used by Canadian elite military units, police and sport shooters, some products are popular despite worries about the bans. The company’s BDX “ballistic data exchange” system linking a rifle scope to a range finder and a smartphone by Bluetooth is “doing very well,” said Jones.

G96 Products Inc., whose gun oils are used by the U.S. military, is seeing sluggish demand amplify the effects of a weaker Canadian dollar, said Andrew Goldman, a sales representative. Goldman said 2018 is “softer.”

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Related Information

• Canada Plans New Gun-Marking System for Tracing to Owners
• Gun Imports 2017: Overview of the Firearm Industry in Charts
• Canadian Tire Expects ‘Flat’ Hunting-Gear Market This Year

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