Sandy's Soapbox

October 2008

An Uncertain Future

I'm pleased to share with the Soapbox community that NAA has recently made a substantial investment in machine tools to increase both our manufacturing capacity as well as the quality of our product.  When the installations are complete, NAA will manufacture all of our pistols in their entirety (with the exception of springs, grips, etc.).  As I'd earlier disclosed, we have suffered, in terms of reliable delivery and the quality of work, by relying on several outside vendors to support our manufacturing.  The success we've enjoyed over the past year has given us both the confidence and resources to reinvest in our company in order to better respond to demand with the best products we can make.  Admittedly, we are still limited by the supply of skilled craftsmen we can train, which is the most important component.

We are still working with a modest backlog and I don't see any reason to anticipate a decline in orders - and see several  that would suggest, instead,  an increase.  If I were a bettin' man, I'd bet that following the upcoming election the administration will turn Democrat and the Congress become more so.  The relative security offered by the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the meaning of the 2^nd Amendment notwithstanding, I expect the Democrats will continue to explore the meaning of "reasonable" regulation, even to the extent it becomes "unreasonable".  The assault on the rights of gun owners and efforts to limit the general availability of firearms– handguns in particular - is likely to be greater than it has in a decade.

Similarly, I believe that financial catastrophe we are facing will have effects which we'll suffer through for the next several years.  Additionally, I believe these effects will   have as great and debilitating an impact to our "social economy"and public safety as they will to our financial economy.  Widespread unemployment, diminished/lost savings, little credit, unaffordable healthcare, limited opportunities, etc. etc.  have not historically been the ingredients for a "polite society".  While I'm not forecasting anarchy, I don't feel the sense of security and personal safety which typically accompanies more prosperous times.  I hope I'm wrong.

In any event, we're making moves which will enable us to make more-and better-guns than at any time in the past and you, our customers, will be the beneficiaries.