Yeah... But we (no one specifically, but the gun community as a whole) still buy guns at Dicks, patronize their subsidiery Field and Stream, and the last time I checked, Cheaper than Dirt was still in business. These guys really did cut and run four years ago, and no one really remembers that. Add to that, the stores mentioned pissed off gun owners at the national level, whereas only Illinois residents are getting screwed, indirectly, by SA and RRA.
If Ruger and S&W did what they did today, in 2017, they would lose a few sales, but I think that would largely be the end of it. They would not be driven out of business, nor would any but a few remember what they did in 2037.
I understand what you're saying, and it may indeed play out that way.
However the social climate has changed, the pervasiveness of social media has increased, and in this particular field the market is so saturated with manufacturers and product that the products from these two firms could all disappear from the supply chain tomorrow and the loss would not be felt by buyers at all.
Prices would not rise, there would be no shortages of firearms for sale, and aside from brand loyalists there would be no upset.
Had this occurred during one of the gun buying panics of years past, when the demand so far outmatched the supply that people would have gladly bought an AR from Diane Feinstein right after Sandy Hook, I'd say they'd be at much less risk.
With the shape the firearms market seems to be in today?
And the heightened political tensions regarding the 2A and the upswing in activism supporting it?
This is probably the worst time to be caught undercutting, or appearing to undercut, the shooting community in the last 50 years.
At this point Springfield and RRA needs the shooting community to survive a whole lot more than the shooting community needs Springfield or RRA to survive.
For shooters the supply of manufacturers is ample, and they can easily afford to cull a few from the herd right now in the interests of improving the ethics of the industry going forward.
Will that happen? I'm not sure, but Springfield and RRA can't simply count on maintaining steady sales after this debacle in a market where their companies are superfluous.
S&W suffered a %40 reduction in sales in the year following their sellout to the Clinton administration.
That was at a time when the market was hungry for guns...a sellers market. We now have a glut, a buyers market.
Can Springfield and RRA survive a %40 reduction in sales on top of the already reduced sales rate in this glutted market?