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Booming US Firearms Industry Could Get 2026 Deregulatory Boost From Trump Administration Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times, Record sales made the first year of the second Trump administration a profitable one for the nation’s $92 billion firearms industry, but the potential for federal regulatory rollbacks in his second year could provide manufacturers and retailers with long-term assurances they need to thrive. That is why state lawmakers need to act fast, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden said, calling on Republicans in state capitols nationwide to “seize the opportunity we see right now with Trump” in the White House to adopt bills that protect gun owners’ rights. “We were just playing defense” for years, said Rhoden, one of seven Republican governors to participate in a Jan. 21 Governors’ Forum on the firearms industry during the second day of the Jan. 20–23 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show at the Venetian Expo and Caesars Forum in Las Vegas. “We’ve taken the lead in South Dakota” by adopting a bill that bans “coding firearms,” he said. “We have an opportunity, and we need to retake advantage of it” right now before the midterms to “move the needle” on such issues as deregulating suppressors and interstate firearms commerce, he added. The Trump administration has not been as aggressive in addressing firearms reform as it has in other realms, but White House Counsel David Warrington said that’s about the change. He noted Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is at the annual show, which is projected to draw more than 55,000 industry executives and sales staff from all 50 states and more than 126 countries to tour 2,800 vendors offering wares on “13.9 miles of aisles” sprawled across 19 acres on The Strip. Among changes expected to be forwarded by the administration in 2026 include proposals to ease private gun sales, ship firearms interstate via mail, export firearms overseas, trim fees for licensed retailers, and simplify the 4473 Form required when purchasing a firearm, including requiring applicants list their biological sex at birth. President Donald Trump recognizes gun owners are among his most ardent supporters, Warrington said, adding the president checks with him and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division’s Second Amendment group, to ensure gun owners’ rights are secure and to ask about initiatives to further strengthen them. “He tells me, ‘The people that stuck with me through the toughest and hardest times are the same people who believe in the Second Amendment,’” Warrington said. Industry In Demand There are more than 10,000 U.S. companies that manufacture, distribute, and sell firearms, ammunition, and hunting equipment. They directly employ nearly 151,000 people and generate an additional 232,327 supplier/ancillary jobs, earning more than $26 billion in wages while contributing $91.65 billion in activity to the nation’s economy in 2024, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) documents in its Firearm and Ammunition Industry Economic Impact Report for 2025. That’s nearly a 400 percent increases compared to the $19.1 billion it generated in 2008, the foundation notes, adding the industry’s average $68,300 annual salary is above median workforce ranges, and that the industry and its employees paid nearly $11 billion in local and state taxes, and $941.8 million in excise taxes paid to Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Fund in 2024. The industry is boosted by millions of new gun owners over the last five years who have undergone review on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), although the number of background checks—an indicator, but not verified documentation, of a sale—declined by 4 percent in to 14.6 million in 2025 from 15.38 million in 2004, the foundation documents. The foundation, whose 9,000 members include manufacturers, distributors, retailers, shooting ranges, and publishers,…

Demographics Deployed For Political Control Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times, People are talking ever more about the possibility of civil war in the United States. The scenes on the streets do not look good, to be sure. That said, we are nowhere near this point and certainly don’t have to be. The trigger for the unfolding of events speaks to a tactic of control that unleashes resistance (and counterresistence) like no other. If this issue is resolved in peace and within the rule of law, normalcy can be restored. Let’s review some of the deeper history. At the height of the Roman Empire, when conquering ever more territory was regarded as regime triumph, a strategy for control emerged that would long persist into the modern age. The military would urge Romanization of the conquered provinces. The aristocracy would flood provinces and towns, bringing language and technology and administrative leadership. Roman citizens, often veterans of these wars, were settled with land grants and created loyal Roman outposts. Many modern European cities trace origins to these settlements. The tactic assured regional loyalty, lessened local resistance, and helped blunt the efficacy of independence movements. The Spanish Empire took a similar approach in the Americas. Massive settler migration from Iberia led to the demographic replacement of indigenous populations. Spanish was imposed as the dominant language. Indigenous tongues were suppressed. Localized religions mutated to match priorities of the imperial faith. So it was in the Soviet Union. After the archives opened following the fall of communism, scholars found proof of what they had long suspected. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians were directed to migrate to the Baltic states following the 1940 annexation. The priorities were the same as the above examples: spread the Russian language, intermarry, and build and administer infrastructure. This weakened national identities and secured Russian holdings. All of these are examples of what is called settler colonialism. It’s a tactic, often a brutal one because it touches the lives, languages, educations, and religion of everyone. It can often be pitiless toward the settled traditions that are being displaced. The USA was born as an experiment in the same way via the British Empire. The English Court and its industrial partners had every intention of using the colonies for the empire’s own purposes, restricting trade and taxing its residents. It did not go so well. After 150 years of experience with freedom in the colonies, Americans developed a sense of independent identity that led to a war of independence that the colonies won. It is true that the United States began as a nation of immigrants and has always been a welcoming country. The early Founding documents left the issue of citizenship to the states because people were citizens of their states. Following a horrible Civil War, the federal government took charge of determining citizenship, alongside a peculiar model of earning the right to vote. All people born within its borders were automatically granted citizenship rights. Immigration became a source of controversy in the late 19th century with floods of new asylum seekers from Russia, Italy, Ireland, and elsewhere, thus taxing infrastructure and giving rise to ethnic and religious tensions. The immigration acts of 1921 and 1924 sought to settle those problems with a strong legal preference for European migration. Forty years later, this prioritization was deemed discriminatory. The immigration act of 1965 reversed priorities and opened up the country to a wider range of newly arriving residents to become citizens. Even with this change, the subject of immigration was regarded as a manageable domestic policy dispute, with people on all sides favoring this or that. The debates concerned economics, religion, and the issue of acculturation. What was not in question was the idea of using demographics for purposes…