Remington Arms, one of America’s oldest gun makers, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection … again.
The company made the filing on Monday in the US Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of Alabama. This is the second time in two years that the firearms manufacturer has filed for Chapter 11 — previously having filed in March 2018.
Since then, Remington had a few setbacks. In November 2019, for instance, the US Supreme Court did not stop a lawsuit brought by Sandy Hook victims’ families against the company, which manufactured the semi-automatic rifle that was used in the 2012 mass shooting at an elementary school.
And in July 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported — citing people familiar with the matter — that discussions to sell Remington to the Navajo Nation broke down.
The filing comes despite that firearms dealers across the country have reported a spike in sales, citing the unrest following police brutality protests in support of George Floyd and calls to defund the police as catalysts, according to gun industry analyst Rob Southwick, founder of the market research firm Southwick Associates Inc.
Remington was founded in 1816 in New York by Eliphalet Remington II. That makes it decades older than competitors Colt’s Manufacturing and Smith and Wesson.
According to company history, Remington II “handcrafted his first rifle barrel at his father’s forge, and carried it to Utica to have a local gunsmith fabricate it into a flintlock rifle.” That was the start of a business that led him to forge and sell his rifles to gunsmiths throughout the country.