{"id":9647,"date":"2025-03-01T11:44:53","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T11:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/the-new-american-gun-store-grips-grenade-launchers-and-ramen-noodles\/"},"modified":"2025-03-01T11:44:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T11:44:53","slug":"the-new-american-gun-store-grips-grenade-launchers-and-ramen-noodles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/the-new-american-gun-store-grips-grenade-launchers-and-ramen-noodles\/","title":{"rendered":"The New American Gun Store: Grips, Grenade Launchers and Ramen Noodles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Christmas was a few days away and Solomon Lehnerd was selling more grenade launchers than usual.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was the first holiday season that his online gun store was selling the components to assemble the holy grail of enhancements for AR-15-style rifles: a 40-millimeter grenade launcher that mounts to the rifle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lehnerd\u2019s shop, Rooftop Defense, thrives on such items as buyers try to recreate historically accurate military rifles, and he profits almost entirely from what has become the new frontier of American gun stores: accessories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe accessories are the meat and potatoes of revenue,\u201d Mr. Lehnerd, who is 29 and goes by Sol, said as he surveyed his counter scattered with holiday orders. \u201cIt\u2019s not really in guns; guns have almost no margins at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Scopes, suppressors, handgrips and muzzle brakes were once inconspicuous options associated with firearms in the United States, footnotes to the hardware that often makes headlines. But with store workers reporting lower than expected gun sales in an election year \u2014 firearms purchases usually spike in fear of new restrictions from incoming administrations \u2014 expensive accessories have been \u201ckeeping the door open,\u201d as one retailer from coastal Maine said in late December.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even the best-selling AR-15, which in the last two decades has become known as \u201cAmerica\u2019s rifle,\u201d is owned by so many Americans that it is no longer in such demand. \u201cEveryone\u2019s got them,\u201d one brick-and-mortar retailer in Minnesota said of his sales this summer. A <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4109494\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">2021 firearms survey<\/a> conducted by a Georgetown University professor found that nearly 25 million people had owned an AR-15-style rifle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Instead, the field of gun modifications and homemade kits has ballooned. More and more people are either building their own guns or outfitting them with accessories that cost far more than the firearms they\u2019re attached to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cGuns, especially for us, just kind of lure people in,\u201d said Louis Reich, a sales representative who works for a major firearms distributor. At the start of the week Mr. Reich looks at Rooftop Defense\u2019s website, where Mr. Lehnerd\u2019s inventory is updated in real time, to see what\u2019s selling and what\u2019s sold out. It helps him prepare orders to help Mr. Lehnerd restock.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAccessories are where we make our money,\u201d Mr. Reich said. The production of firearm suppressors, or silencers, some of which can cost more than twice as much as an AR-15-style rifle, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atf.gov\/firearms\/docs\/report\/nfcta-volume-iv-part-i-%E2%80%93-firearm-commerce-updates-and-new-analysis\/download\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">skyrocketed by more than 9,000 percent<\/a> between 2000 to 2021, according to data from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gun enthusiasts, many of whom suffer from what\u2019s known in the hobby as \u201crestless rifle syndrome,\u201d constantly tinker with their firearms, despite the steep cost. Others, known as cloners, are obsessed with replicating military rifles, especially those from the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to exact specifications, and build firearm after firearm. Grenade launchers and suppressors are often required to match the aesthetic of period weapons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On this, some gun shop owners like Mr. Lehnerd make their living.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey\u2019re who keep the businesses alive, this gun industry survives on those guys who are the builders and the enthusiasts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gun retailers, particularly those exclusively online, can have wide-ranging inventories. Some higher-end manufacturers cater more to military contracts than to regular consumers. In 2022, there were roughly 78,000 licensed firearms dealers in the United States, according to the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lehnerd\u2019s own journey to selling firearms accessories was an unusual one. His father was a U.S. Airman, and Mr. Lehnerd was born in South Korea, deaf in one ear. He eventually dropped out of high school, even spending about a month homeless in Los Angeles. But a childhood lived abroad on military bases sparked Mr. Lehnerd\u2019s desire to own a gun. Eventually, a physical injury from changing gas meters led him to open Rooftop Defense with his wife, Abbie.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The shop \u2014 which takes its name from Mr. Lehnerd\u2019s nickname \u201cRooftop,\u201d after the Korean Americans who <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1992\/05\/03\/us\/riot-los-angles-pocket-tension-target-rioters-koreatown-bitter-armed-determined.html\" title=\"\">defended their Los Angeles neighborhood from their roofs during<\/a> the Rodney King riots \u2014 is considered by his peers as a standout in the next generation of American gun stores.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He runs the business from a squat warehouse, deep in cow country an hour outside of Little Rock, Ark., with his one other full-time employee, Sam, whose annual bonus in 2023 was a LEGO Star Wars Millenium Falcon and the Mos Eisley Cantina. Ms. Lehnerd still helps part time with shipments and post office runs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The shop is well organized, with shelves of accessories, firearms and packages stacked among packages of ramen. It looks nothing like the typical American gun store. But its essence matches the spirit of what a large part of the gun community has become in the past decade: an infatuation with perfecting the AR-15 by way of countless modifications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When Mr. Lehnerd opened in 2020 he sold just seven items. Now he offers around 700. His customers buy gun accessories almost feverishly with little sign of slowing down; January was his best month since he started. He includes in each order a packet of ramen and a preprinted Post-it note. He had to stop writing them by hand a few years ago as business boomed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI know this addiction is expensive,\u201d the note reads, \u201cso enjoy a free meal on us.\u201d Customers also receive a copy of the Constitution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some guns and accessories are so elusive on the market that they have a name: \u201cunobtainium.\u201d Like a coveted Air Jordan release from Nike, rare and limited-edition accessories create a frenzy and boost sales for store owners who can get their hands on them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Andrew Wladyka, a manager at A&amp;M Tactical, a brick-and-mortar gun store in Middletown, R.I., makes most of his money from accessories, ammunition and used gun sales, but his store \u201cdoesn\u2019t have enough influence\u201d to stock rifles and accessories from one manufacturer: Knight\u2019s Armament Company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The company, based in Titusville, Fla., sells almost exclusively to the Defense Department and other government agencies, and is the pinnacle of AR-15 unobtainium, Mr. Wladyka said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Mr. Lehnerd made inroads with the company after starting a Facebook group for Knight\u2019s rifle owners in 2016. Then he managed to secure a coveted spot as one of their few civilian retailers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now customers mob the Rooftop Defense site whenever Mr. Lehnerd mentions a product drop on Discord or Reddit. In January, he sold 400 Knight\u2019s Armament battery caps \u2014 small plastic discs that mount onto a rifle sight \u2014 in about 90 minutes. So many people tried to order them at once that the website crashed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was literally the epitome of people going crazy over a Barbie item,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew people wanted these but I didn\u2019t know they wanted it that bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The gun industry\u2019s shift to a drop culture more common among sneaker and fashion brands feels like a natural evolution. In an increasingly polarized nation, gun ownership in America has transformed into more of a lifestyle than a hobby or policy position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cGuns generally have been stagnant but it\u2019s not just the accessories market that\u2019s growing, it\u2019s the clothes, patches and lifestyle items, too,\u201d said Chase Welch, who works for a public relations firm that partners with major firearms companies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Jordan Levine, a firefighter and former U.S. Marine, runs a small online company called A Better Way 2A from his basement in Seymour, Conn. Unlike Rooftop Defense, which is directed at gun owners preoccupied with tweaking their guns, Mr. Levinson\u2019s customers are combining their interest in firearms with their views on gun rights and civil rights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe gear market is saturated and it\u2019s incredibly hard to get a foothold, and I felt the best way to change the gun community for the better was with a lifestyle brand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Levine\u2019s top sellers are stickers and patches geared toward the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/02\/16\/us\/new-gun-owners.html\" title=\"\">growing number of firearms users<\/a> that might traditionally avoid a gun range: women, minority gun owners and those in the L.G.B.T.Q. community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI saw gun rights as something everybody should be able to exercise regardless of who you are, and I thought it was BS that certain groups perceived the gun community as unwelcoming to them,\u201d Mr. Levine, 34, said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many of his customers often ask how to avoid spending money on tactical and firearms brands that might be seen as bigoted and unwelcoming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As a firearms instructor, Mr. Levine started giving out stickers that said \u201cgun rights are human rights.\u201d From there it turned into an Etsy page and then A Better Way 2A in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now, his basement office is stocked floor to ceiling with stickers like \u201cMake Racists Afraid Again.\u201d Another popular decal has crossed rifles with the tag \u201cBe Queer Shoot Straight.\u201d Gun sales may have cooled around the country, but his stickers and shirts, especially since the election, have taken off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMy Black Friday sale was insane,\u201d Mr. Levine said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/01\/us\/gun-stores-women-lgbtq.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christmas was a few days away and Solomon Lehnerd was selling more grenade launchers than usual. It was the first<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2522,3388,3385,1407,3391,1960,3390,3387,3386,3392,3393,242,3384,3389,168],"class_list":["post-9647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us","tag-arkansas","tag-bureau-of-alcohol","tag-consumer-behavior","tag-e-commerce","tag-everytown-for-gun-safety","tag-firearms","tag-firearms-and-explosives","tag-hobbies","tag-korean-americans","tag-middletown-conn","tag-middletown-ri","tag-minorities","tag-shopping-and-retail","tag-tobacco","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The New American Gun Store: Grips, Grenade Launchers and Ramen Noodles - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/the-new-american-gun-store-grips-grenade-launchers-and-ramen-noodles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The New American Gun Store: Grips, Grenade Launchers and Ramen Noodles - World News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christmas was a few days away and Solomon Lehnerd was selling more grenade launchers than usual. 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