There are approximately 700,000 police officers in the US.
There are also between 117,000,000 and 150,000,000 gun owners in the US (approximately and depending on the source).
If everyone only owned one gun, the police market is a whopping half percent of it at best.
But let's say the cops are being sensible and have their main pistol and a back up on them plus a shotgun and patrol [sic] rifle in the car.
If every cop has four guns and everyone else has one, they're still just 2% of the market!
The thing is, I don't think they're even the half percent of the market I mentioned earlier. Most gun owners I know own substantially more than one gun. Even the most casual ones I know own at least two guns.
What all this adds up to...
Gun makers. You can tell any and every department in the nation who makes any sort of demand about releasing your records to try their hand at the local gun shops for weapons procurement.
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Companies often fall for the Large Number fallacy; individual sales to everyone else does far out number the LEOs but the large numbers and regular occurrence (different departments buying throughout the year) misleads companies into thinking they can't do without the big ticket orders.
ReplyDeleteNor do individuals have the political clout to get local officials elected (hey, isn't your property tax rebate up for renewal this year?) as do police chiefs and police unions.
Still your points are valid and I think more and more companies are starting to wake up to that fact.
LE department sales are loss leaders.
ReplyDeleteA tiny, tiny percentage of gun owners even know or care what gun blogs or internet forums are.
A huge number know what the FBI or local cops carry.
Every gun blog on the internet could call for a boycott of Blastomatic, INC, and it would probably still be a net gain for them, PR-wise, to sell to the FBI or California Highway Patrol at a dollar per unit under cost.
(Well, I shouldn't say "a tiny percentage", but it's a minority. Further, of those, you get brand loyal fanbois who could care if their favorite brand gave free guns to the Einsatzgruppen, and then people who are more or less apolitical on whatever the issue is.)
ReplyDelete"couldn't care less", even. Stupid fingers. :(
ReplyDelete