This news article claims that bacground checks are down.,
"Adjusted (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) background checks rose 9.2% in March, with handguns up 16.7% and long guns off 3.4%; but sequential declines of 13.2% and 8.0% for handguns and long guns, respectively, were the weakest of the past decade and well below 10-year averages for hand guns (-2.6%) and long guns (+3.6%),” wrote Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr."  http://www.investors.com/news/smith-wesson-shares-plummet-xx-cut-key-level-on-downgrades/

When i look at the FBI numbers they are the highest in the last decade ? Am i reading the article wrong ? https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/reports/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf

Not sure what the "sequential declines" refers to, as the "adjusted" checks are up. Here are a couple of posts from a gun blog today (sales are only looking bleak in the future because they can't maintain inventory to meet the increased demand):

http://extranosalley.com/?p=85837

“We can’t Get Glocks, and the closer to election it gets, the worse it gets"   

I stopped by my favorite gun dealers to see if by accident they had a Glock 37, to hear the counterman say, sadly, “We can’t get Glocks right now, and the closer to election it gets the worse it gets.”

Yes, many Americans are afraid that the gun ban party will put Clinton or Sanders in the White House and the Democrats will regain control of the House and Senate.
So Americans are buying new guns are a rate more than four times the 20th century average, and would buy far more if they were available.

and

http://extranosalley.com/?p=85839

New Record, More Than 2.5 million NICS Checks In March

The FBI reports a new record for the number of NICS checks for March of 2,523,265 National Instant Criminal Checks. That tops the previous record of 2,488,842 in March of 2014.

The total for the first quarter of 2016 is 7,682,141 NICS checks, and the total would likely be over 10 million for the quarter if the manufacturers could make them that fast.

The supply of new guns is almost non-existent, and popular guns are going for well over MSRP.

Sequential declines means that it is down from February to March. It may be up year over year (From March 2105 to 2016). But from January to February it was up and then dropped from February to March. The analysts may feel the decline is a sign that gun sales are dropping due to lack of sales because people no longer want to buy guns. But if sales are down because the manufacturers cannot make enough to keep up with demand then the analysts really just F'ed up. It happens a lot.

    Vacation travel, hotel accommodations , air travel, new vehicle sales,  gas sales and Christmas presents,were also down February to March. 
 
    It's not like gun sale's are really seasonal  (well, maybe Black Friday, Christmas and election years).
All spending is down during Feb to March, just like late August thru early  October.