Gun maker Remington files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — again

Remington Arms, weighed down by lawsuits and retail sales restrictions following the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012, is seeking bankruptcy protection for the second time in as many years. 

In a Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy court for Northern District of Alabama this week, the nation's oldest gun maker listed assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million, and between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors.

In the most recent legal action this year against the Madison, N.C., company, families of those killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting were granted access to the computer of the shooter.

The families are looking for evidence of the shooter's exposure to advertisements for weapons. They say Remington violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act by marketing its Bushmaster XM15-E2S, an AR-15 style weapon, to civilians.

The weapon was used to kill 20 children and six adult staff at the school.

Decreased gun sales

Remington sought bankruptcy protection in 2018. It exited court protection the same year, after creditors took over ownership of the new company.

Gun sales have slumped, as they typically do under a Republican administration, because gun owners are not as compelled to stockpile weapons out of fear that Congress will create tougher gun-control laws.

But the past three years under President Donald Trump have been particularly volatile, fuelled in part by a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017 and other high-profile mass killings that have led retail chains to restrict sales or remove guns completely from stores.

Sales figures have begun to change recently as most polls show presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with a sizeable lead as the U.S. election nears.

According to June figures released by the FBI, 3.9 million background checks were conducted last month, the most since the system was created in November 1998. Background checks are the most reliable metric used to measure gun sales.