Shop owner brings a booming business to Allentown

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In fact, 2011 has gone down in the sales books as a record setting year – and 2012 has the potential for an even stronger showing.

No, it’s not food or clothing. And it’s certainly not cars or homes. It’s not even a product that all families want or need.

The product triggering such growth and profits is firearms!

So the timing for opening a store couldn’t have been better for Lehigh Valley Guns and Ammo, which officially opened their center city Allentown doors last month.

Adam Miller, president of the newly opened gun store at 629 N. 13th St., is hoping to rake in more bang for his investment buck. Gun shops are, after all, an estimated $4 billion business, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade organization for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry.

Testament to this is that one small, local gun dealer has had over $140,000 in weapons backordered since this summer.

That’s a pittance compared to Dury’s Gun Shop in San Antonio, Texas. That place is doing such bang-bang business it has $400,000 in guns on backorder.

The owner of Gilbert Guns in Frankfort, Ky. said, “In 30 years of business we have never seen backorders this high.”
Domestic gun makers like Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer and Ruger have had more orders than they could fill this year.

In late spring, Ruger stopped taking orders for a few months to catch up – despite running three manufacturing shifts at their Newport, N.H. plant. On Aug. 11, Ruger announced it had produced its one-millionth firearm… this year!

Gun makers across America are making record profits.

One indicator of this tremendous market is that FBI background checks were up. According to the NSSF, in January 2012, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS is the computer system federally licensed firearms dealers use to conduct mandatory background checks on purchases of new and used firearms), registered 920,840 checks for an increase of 17.3 percent over the 2011 figure of 784,856.

In December 2011 alone, there were more than 1,854,400 – a figure that went down as an all-time high for any single month.

Last holiday season’s Black Friday (Nov. 25, 2011) scored a record for the most background checks in a single day – 129,166 for a 32 percent increase over the previous single-day high.

Back to the Lehigh Valley.

Miller, who is a former Northampton County domestic relations hearing officer, decided he wanted his own business and had the foresight to take a shot at the firearms industry.

With some help from his father, Allentown attorney Todd Miller, he began renting out the formerly vacant 13th Street building.

With the wall partitions in place, Miller and his partner Matt Leibensperger, who also serves as secretary of the firm and is one of three employees there, estimates they have about 1,600 square feet of store space in the elongated building that is appropriately designed and furnished with several glass-top handgun display cases that take up nearly as much space as those at Cabela’s in Hamburg.

Miller said the shop currently has 350 or so firearms on display, which translates into a $300,000 investment. They handle all popular makes with the exception of Kimber and Benelli, but those are forthcoming.
In addition to handguns, the shop sports a wall of hunting rifles, AR or black rifles, plus some shotguns that are marketed for home protection.

Miller said customers interested in home safety are his top draw.

He plans to install a 25-yard shooting range on the south side of the building by knocking out a portion of the wall near the front door.

There are security cameras inside and out, and customers have to ring a doorbell to be buzzed into the vestibule.

Once in the vestibule, patrons are buzzed into the store.

Once the automated range is completed, Miller wants to offer personal safety and home defense shooting classes that will be conducted by certified firearms instructors.

Miller also sells ammo. Brands run the gamut from American Eagle, Remington, Hornady, Blazer, Zombie, Barnes and Armscorp.

The store will also handle Mag Pull magazines and products from Blackhawk, a maker of law enforcement gear, plus holsters and eventually, shooting-related outerwear.