Even if you wanted to, which so many of us desperately do want, you could not avoid being overwhelmed with the noise which surrounds an upcoming election. The good news is that it will be over soon; the bad news is, not soon enough.

     It comes as no surprise that the war in Iraq seems to be the dominant issue in this campaign. While not many of us are qualified to assess the conduct of the war, we all can (and do) have an opinion about the apparent outcome. No one, including those charged with describing/defending the actions of the administration, is satisfied with the results. This is just one of a myriad of reasons that suggests, according to the conventional wisdom, that the governing party - Republicans - is about to take a whipping. That's the good news and the bad news both.

     Good news because, as I've earlier indicated, nothing stirs up the gun-buying marketplace like the threat of adverse legislation from a new, Democratically-controlled Congress. Notwithstanding an almost unblemished history that shows firearms restriction issues are legislative losers, there is a contingent of politicians, typically from liberal strongholds such as California, New York and Massachusetts, which feels compelled to chase this agenda. I have every confidence that they will try (but fail) and successfully unsettle enough people to cause industry sales to be at least as strong next year as they have been this year.

     The bad news, obviously, is that there is a whole host of other mischief that these Democrats tend to create, not the least of which is profligate spending (unfortunately they don't tend to spend it on NAA firearms!).

     Addressing our internal manufacturing capability to meet this demand is one of several reasons, however, that we are making very slow progress with the development of the 32H&R revolver project. We are just beginning to receive quotations from vendors, the results of which are not all encouraging, regarding what it will cost us to manufacture this piece. While a final decision has not yet been made, it should not be considered a foregone conclusion that this product will enter production. We will continue to keep you posted.

     In the meantime, I hasten to remind you to vote; even if the outcome is not to your liking, without voting you have absolutely no standing to say anything else. And from anyone's perspective, that's bad news.