The scare of the worldwide pandemic caused a huge surge in business for firearms merchants, but as society recovers from latent fears of structural disorder, gun shops are seeing declines.

As a high risk business, firearms merchants often thrive in unique economic conditions. However from an economic standpoint, guns and ammo are elastic goods meaning consumers buy them with careful thought and usually when they have extra money to spend.

Consumer demand for firearms decreases as earning and employment conditions get harder for the standard American family. As such, fewer people are spending money on growing their collection or discharging a few rounds at their favorite shooting range.

For firearms merchants this means putting yourself ahead of your competition and ensuring secure transactions . As a general standard, anyone who buys a new firearm has to have a background check first, and beyond this there are a number of conditions vendors must impose in order to obtain an FFL Certification.

Firearms Vendors Surviving Economic Shifts

Top firearms companies like Smith & Wesson have shown nearly a 40% decrease in their stock proxies while Ruger & Company has dropped 19%. These trends are consistent across the industry, and smaller shops are hunkering down to face the trending decline. As such many have turned to increased marketing efforts, and cutting overhead costs such as lowering their payment processing costs.

Saving a small percentage of hard-earned revenue across the board can make a big difference in yearly profits especially when the severity of a recession is unknown. FFL merchant accounts are the best way to ride out the storm and focus on maintaining credit card processing.

Chart: Gabriel Cortes / CNBC

Gun companies reckon with declining demand after pandemic surge

FFL Merchant Account

An FFL merchant account allows you to process payments from customers. This type of merchant account is customized for gun store owners because standard payment processing companies like PayPal don’t allow high risk businesses to operate with their payment technology.

An FFL merchant account is the payment processing standard for FFL certified gun stores or anyone that sells firearms related products. This standard is created by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive (ATF), and they have described the steps thoroughly on their website. If you’re interested in learning the details, check out the ATF application page .

Background Checks For Gun Purchases

Background checks are the best way to measure the trend in sales associated with firearms. Federal law demands that all firearms purchased or sold by licensed dealers require a background check. Moreover, 21 states have extended their laws to include stricter background checking policies.

Interestingly, in some states background checks are not required for unlicensed dealers. In turn, the sale and exchange of weapons can be made without understanding the historical identity of the parties involved. Nonetheless, reputable dealers choose to maintain certification standards to ensure sales and the ability to have sustainable payment processing.

Technology For Gun Stores

In a similar boat are the tech companies that create software for firearms merchants. These companies rely on economic trends to increase the recurring purchases of their CRMs and inventory management tools. As the industry changes, we’re sure to see pricing changes and newly marketed tools to help gun stores in new innovative ways.