In the aftermath of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, survivors are demanding that their nation and its government bring an end to gun violence. The latest high-profile school shooting in the U.S., which left 17 students and faculty dead, has rekindled the oft-repeated debate over gun control. But gun sales have been declining in recent months, with major firearms manufacturers seeing their share prices drop.

Ironically, sales of firearms in the U.S. are actually declining at a time when gun-friendly Republicans are in charge. Though the president yesterday signaled his support for more thorough background checks as well as a ban on firearm modifiers, Republican members of Congress seem uninterested in considering further significant federal regulation of firearm sales in the wake of the nation's latest gun-related massacre. Neither do Republican state legislatures - just days after the deadliest school shooting in the state's history, the Florida House of Representatives voted to reject legislation that would ban the sale of assault rifles in the state. The shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School used an assault rifle made by Smith & Wesson.

The stocks of prominent gun makers have declined since the 2016 election, with gun sales falling noticeably over the last year. Using background-check statistics from the FBI as a measurement, this past month, January 2018, was the slowest for gun sales in over five years.

American Outdoor Brands Corp (AOBC  ), which owns Smith & Wesson, has seen its stock decline by 47% since this time last year. The oldest gun maker in the U.S., Remington Arms, announced last Monday that it plans to file for bankruptcy. In operation since 1816, Remington is facing mounting debt and continuing lawsuits related to the 2014 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. Investors have shied away from the company, distancing themselves from the bad press associated with the killing of 26 people, 20 of them children under the age of seven.

In 2016, Colt's Manufacturing Company came out of its own bankruptcy proceedings, after sinking $350 million into debt.

Gun sales may be slowing because of the political climate, according to the head of one of the largest American arms manufacturers. During the Obama administration, gun makers saw a trend of rising sales in the wake of mass shootings, as buyers sought to make purchases before further restrictions on sales were enacted. With the election of Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress in power, there is little possibility that any form of substantial gun-control legislation will be passed. Regarding declining sales of his company's products, James Debney, chief executive of American Outdoor Brands, said in December, "There is no fear-based buying right now."

Though he has not pushed for significant restrictions of firearms sales, Donald Trump announced yesterday that he will be pursuing a ban on gun modification devices like bump stocks, four months after they were used in the Mandalay Bay shooting in Las Vegas. A bump-stock is a gun modification attachment for semi-automatic weapons that increases their firing rate to allow them to function like fully automatic guns.