According to a new report from the gun violence prevention group Guns Down America, [former gun store owner John] Kielbasa’s experience is evidence of decades-long coordination between retailers and gun manufacturers to fix prices above what the market might otherwise support. Retailers — particularly those with the buying power to influence manufacturers — have steered the scheme to guarantee profits, the report alleges, leaving the American gun-buying public to pay the price.
“The gun industry is artificially inflating prices, and blocking safety efforts,” said Hudson Munoz, Guns Down America’s executive director. “That screws gun owners, and it fills the war chest on which these companies depend to oppose public safety efforts.”
Kielbasa told The Trace he closed his store in 2022. He said the gun business was “lopsided” in favor of bigger retailers who can negotiate compensation for unsold stock. He felt his hands had been tied by manufacturers who enforced minimums on price. “Once I purchase the product, it’s my product, and if it ain’t selling what am I going to do with it?” he asked. “It’s a hard business for mom-and-pop stores, so I’m done with it.”
The report, titled The Price is Wrong, argues that the alleged price-fixing scheme inflated gun industry profits and helped bankroll its political activities over the past two decades — a period of intense partisan gridlock on guns. Guns Down America suggests that antitrust enforcement might lead to settlements that could fund violence prevention and force the industry to adopt reforms, as well as provide fairer prices for gun owners.
Neither SIG Sauer nor the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the industry’s leading trade group, responded to multiple requests for comment about the report.
— Champe Barton in Gunmakers Coordinated With Retailers to Keep Gun Prices High, New Report Alleges
So a fellow who couldn’t figure out how to make money money selling guns in one of the hottest gun selling markets ever is bitter about everyone else who makes money selling guns in one of the hottest gun selling markets ever then wants the government to “fix” his problem…yeah, this one’s an easy call…
News Flash! ‘Guns Down America’ and ‘The Trace’ discover a new thing called the ‘free-enterprise’ system.
“The report, titled The Price is Wrong, argues that the alleged price-fixing scheme inflated gun industry profits and helped bankroll its political activities over the past two decades — a period of intense partisan gridlock on guns. Guns Down America suggests that antitrust enforcement might lead to settlements that could fund violence prevention and force the industry to adopt reforms, as well as provide fairer prices for gun owners.”
OK, lets translate that to what they are really saying – “gun industry profits helped bankroll its political activities over the past two decades, and our agenda is getting its butt kicked even with our mar*xist socai*list mill*ion/billi*on-aires funding our political activities. So we want the gun industry to make less money. And to do that we are gonna make a baseless claim they are doing something illegal and for good measure we are gonna pretend to be doing it for American gun owners so as to bias them against the gun industry we hope to eventually force out of business by them not making enough profit.”
But what is Kielbasa’s part in this? If he couldn’t make a go if it when all his competitors could, why? Something fishy with what we’ve been told.
Must be some interesting backstory to this.
Unless there are a lot of John Keilbasas that own gun shops he seems to be doing fine. He’s a typical richy Northeasterner with Florida property. Two gun stores one in NY and one in FL.
His real gripe seems to be with moving Sigs and that probably has more to do with the stupid air force murder/suicide and the resulting click farming youtube bait fest that followed.