Cabela's, Gander Mountain, Bass Pro Shops, etc. have approached hunting/fishing equipment supply in a capitalist mindset similar to many other businesses. The business has to constantly grow to make money and investors happy. The problem is, the dependent resource, the areas to hunt and fish and the species populations, are not expanding with the economy. In fact, as development eats up more rural areas within reasonable driving distance from a city, there are less areas available to the general public each year.

I am fortunate enough to live in New Mexico which has a wealth of public lands, but here we have lottery draws for all big game species as the populations couldn't sustain the hunting pressure from even the tiny New Mexico population. Across the US, the only hope for expanding areas available to sportsman is ecological restoration and preservation of key wildlife cooridors, both of which are expensive, time consuming, and fly in the face of our development sprawl ethic.

Other than those people who live in rural areas, hunting and fishing have already become a favorite sport for middle and upper class men, often those that actually need the meat the least. "Catch and Release" was a program started to slow the depredation of large fish populations, but there just isn't enough woods and lakes in the US to support the exponential growth needed by a company as large as Cabela's.

You make some really good points but I don't think all gun purchases need to be tied directly to available land resources. There are certainly people that like to own and shoot guns that never have a chance to go hunting. Gun makers can satisfy some of that need for growth by contstantly upgrading etc.