One of the oldest gun manufacturers in the United States, Remington Outdoor, has filed for bankruptcy in order to try and shed some US$700 million worth of debt and absorb the shocks of falling gun sales.
The company's owner, hedge-fund Cerberus Capital Management reportedly intends to sell the company off once its debts have been successfully restructured.
Since the election of US president Donald Trump, gun manufacturers have seen their business decline as fears among more conservative Americans of more restrictive gun-ownership laws under a Democratic president have subsided.
Firearms sales have typically shot up after major shooting incidents in America in recent years. Gun control has long been one of the leading divisive political issues in the United States, with a large majority of the public favoring tighter regulation of the industry. The Republican Party however, which currently holds all three branches of government, remains intimately connected to the National Rifle Association, the most powerful lobby group in favor of a deregulated gun industry.
On March 22, the largest public demonstration in recent years took place, involving at least 800,000 protestors in Washington D.C. calling for stricter gun-control after the mass-school shooting in Florida on February 14 which killed 17 people.