On Black Friday, several stores of outdoor sports outfitter Cabela's gave away guns. And have you heard the one about the gun club offering photos with Santa and ammo?

Guns, always popular in the US, have become even more so in a slumping, anxious economy. No wonder, as a new report exposes, a New York City-based capital management form has been buying up as many gun brands as it can get its hands on.

The gun-loving conglomerate, Freedom Group, now sells more than 1.2 million guns a year, notching $40 billion in yearly revenue. (That's more than Coca-Cola, by the way.)

Benefitting from the rise in gun sales are the gun accessories industry. But one such brand faces a huge uphill marketing challenge, burdened with severely tight regulations, even for the gun industry. The brand's answer? An education campaign called "Silencers are Legal."Continue reading...

Americans buy about seven billion bullets a year. This year, the ammunition business is booming more than ever, with some shortages reported.

And while shortages make buying a favored brand over "whatever you got" less important, branding is still important within the ammo business. It's easiest to think about ammunition brands much the same way one would brands of batteries or gasoline: commodities. So branding is more important than ever, even if Rob Walker missed the point -- that gun-owners prize performance, not just image --  in his column in yesterday's New York Times Magazine.Continue reading...