Buried in Tuesday's聽, Vista Outdoor聽quietly聽announced that it plans to get out of the business of making guns.
The huge conglomerate is best known in the outdoor world for popular brands聽like CamelBak, Bushnell, and Camp Chef, but it also owns ,聽like Savage and Stevens, which it聽plans to sell.聽
The move comes after enormous pressure was placed on the company by consumer boycotts of gun manufacturers following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. One petition,聽which gathered ,聽called for REI to drop all Vista products. Soon after that, both REI and its Canadian counterpart, MEC, announced that they would聽halt orders of聽all聽Vista Outdoor brands.聽
Vista billed the move as a 鈥渟trategic business transformation plan,鈥 and stated in a press release: 鈥淥ur review identified product categories that are core to the company's long-term business strategy. We believe future investment should focus on categories where Vista Outdoor can achieve sustainable growth, maximize operational efficiencies, deliver leadership economics, and drive shareholder value.鈥 Vista also announced that it will sell bike brands聽Bell, Giro, and Blackburn.聽
In its quarterly report, Vista noted聽a 9聽percent drop in annual sales, and cited, 鈥渓ower firearms sales as a result of decreased demand impacting the shooting sports industry.鈥
Yet it seems there's聽more聽at play here than simply the 鈥,鈥 which is affecting聽the firearms industry as a whole. Vista鈥檚 largest profits come from its multiple ammunition brands鈥擣ederal, Speer, and American Eagle鈥攚hich are some of the largest in the country and聽which the company remains invested in. Selling off its gun brands could be seen as turncoat compromise by Second聽Amendment absolutists (see what happened to Yeti last week). Boycotts of those brands by that crowd could follow.聽
At best, we may have just seen the firearms business begin to develop a moral compass. At worst, the spending power of outdoor enthusiasts just won a small聽victory in the fight against gun violence.聽