It was one of the odder gun-company announcements to have come across my desk in years: Las Vegas-based Arsenal, Inc. released a statement saying that international military-delivery commitments have caused a halt in production of commercial versions of the company’s SLR-107FR and SLR-104UR rifles:
“Currently, all SLR-107FR models, including SLR107-31, SLR107-32, SLR107-33, SLR107-34, and SLR107-36 configurations, and all SLR-104UR models with standard 16-inch barrel, including SLR104-51, SLR104-52, SLR104-53, and SLR104-54 configurations are temporarily out. All units have been shipped out of Arsenal to our distributors. Please inquire with your dealers, distributors, or retail outlets for any availability for any units that are still in the pipeline.”
The reason, according to the statement: “Arsenal also has serious military obligations throughout the world. Due to the current situation in the world and the sharp increase in violence in places such as Middle East and the demand to replenish countries’ militaries to constrain those who cause harm and evil, it has become necessary to shift Arsenal’s full concentration to fulfilling military contracts. This has caused a sharp, but hopefully short-lived, halt in production of commercial products.”
I can’t recall a similar announcement before, and the more I think about it, the more I appreciate Arsenal’s honesty. Rather than putting off customers who can’t find these products, Arsenal got ahead of the problem.
In fact, I wish other companies were as communicative, in particular Kel-Tec. That company makes a lot of highly-sought-after guns, and supply is usually tight, tight, tight. I understand such a scarcity strategy keeps retail prices high, thus margins are good all up and down the supply chain, but just tell us, for goodness sakes, so we don’t have to keep checking to see if any PMR-30s are available.
The same thing is true for new products. Many new guns and accessories are introduced each year, and I’m as interested as the next guy in knowing when a certain gun is actually shipping and in what quantities so I have some idea if I can buy them and get them into our testing supply chain. It would be news, at least in my opinion, for all firearms companies to release availability statements for their products, especially new ones. A hypothetical:
“Glock has released 250 units of its new polymer-framed 1911-style 45 ACP to several distributors, and another 300 units are expected to ship by the end of the month.” (No, Glock isn’t making this product.)
So kudos to Arsenal for informing its customers about shortages so we can adjust our expectations — and go buy some of the affected SKUs before everybody runs out.
