America's oldest gun maker files for bankruptcy as sales decline nationwide
America's oldest gun maker has filed for bankruptcy as firearms sales slump across the country following Donald Trump's election.
Founded more than 200 years ago, Remington Outdoor said it was turning over control to creditors after a huge decline in sales in the last year.
In 2016, the FBI processed a record number of background checks - used as a barometer for gun sales - but the rate has fallen since President Trump's election.
The slowdown has been attributed to Mr Trump's opposition to gun control laws, which stopped the panic-buying rush that the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency had prompted.
In the first nine months of his presidency Remington's sales were down 27.5 per cent.
The debate over gun control has intensified in the wake of the Florida Parkland high school shooting, one of the worst in the country's history, which left 17 dead.
A recent poll showed that 69 per cent of Americans, including half of Republicans, now favour stronger gun control laws.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took part in organised marches across the US on Saturday in what anti-gun campaigners hoped would be a pivotal moment in their bid to end the country's gun violence.
A number of the US's biggest retailers raised the age limit for certain firearms purchases to 21 or stopped stocking semi-automatic weapons all together in response to the Florida Parkland shooting.
Remington, which was founded in 1818 and is best known for its rifles and shotguns, filed for bankruptcy in order to cut a deal with its creditors.
The company has faced lawsuits after its Bushmaster, an AR-15-style rifle, was used in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 six and seven-year-olds.
Remington was cleared of any wrongdoing but has continued to be blighted by financial difficulties because of declining sales.
