Remington, oldest U.S. gun maker, files for bankruptcy

Remington Outdoor Co., the oldest firearms manufacturer in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday, after months of declining gun sales and amid renewed protests against gun violence.

The company had seen a year’s worth of slumping sales and could not meet requirements from its lenders, Remington CFO Stephen Jackson said in documents filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Reuters reported.

The filing was not entirely a surprise. The company had announced on Feb. 12 that it had reached a deal with creditors to write off about $700 million of its $950 million debt load. Though it was on its way to Chapter 11, Remington’s executives predicted the gun maker would persist “now and long into the future.”

“We have an outstanding collection of brands and products, the unqualified support of a vibrant community across the industry, and a deep and powerful culture,” Remington CEO Anthony Acitelli said at the time. “We will emerge from this process ... to compete more aggressively and to seize future growth opportunities.”

However, two days later, a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 students and staff members. The shooting — already one of several to take place at a school in 2018 — reignited the debate over gun violence and galvanized a new generation of activists, including many teenagers from Parkland.

Remington’s bankruptcy filing came just one day after hundreds of thousands of people gathered to protest gun violence at the March for Our Lives in Washington, as well as at hundreds of “sibling marches” across the country.

In the bankruptcy, Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm that acquired Remington in 2007, will lose its ownership of the company.