SASKATOON – Daryl Bax doesn’t get much solace from saying “I told you so.”
But when he closes his Carlyle, Sask., gun shop in the next couple of months, his prediction that the new federal gun law would kill off many shops like his will have come true.
“People aren’t buying,” he said. “They just aren’t buying anymore. They don’t know what’s coming.”
Last January Bax predicted the new gun law, if passed, would annoy, confuse and worry gun enthusiasts so much they would stop buying firearms.
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Since the outline of the gun bill was announced about a year and a half ago, Bax’s sales have collapsed. He said he was selling about 12 handguns per year before federal justice minister Allan Rock began pushing the bill. Since then he has sold none.
And rifle sales for the past year are down 57 percent, he said.
“The rifle business is done.”
Bax said he decided to close Bull’s Eye Sporting Goods because he could read the financial writing on the wall.
“I haven’t lost any money on the store yet, but I haven’t taken any wages out of it (this year),” he said. “Next year I could see myself pouring money into it, and I’m not prepared to do that.”
Ironically, Bax’s business was his attempt at diversification.
“I got into the store to help subsidize my farm,” he said ruefully.
Things are better in Unity, Sask., where specialty gun shop owner Becky Middleton said “It’s business as usual.”
But Middleton said she has heard of many small gun shops facing closure and thinks her shop’s success may be due to the niche market it serves: muzzle-loading rifle hunters.
Bax has dropped prices and is trying to clear out his gun stock and ammunition.
“I hope to be home for spring when my cows start calving,” he said.
