Closure of the SCCY Industries Firearm Company

Over the last two weeks I have watched competing posts claiming the SCCY company was closed, and some people say it was still open and the victim of an internet hoax. This week, photographs have surfaced online showing stickers from the Volusia County FL Tax Office on the SCCY HQ building, indicating that its contents have been seized due to tax-related issues. The Google business listing shows “Permanently closed. “There are internet rumors about individual owners not being able to get back any pistols sent in for service due to the tax foreclosure.

Like them or hate them, the SCCY pistols have been the icon for a great firearms dream. They were All American Made and were marketed to an avid audience who did not want to pay or could not afford to pay $600 to $700 for a pocket-sized pistol. Selling for MSRP of $269 they were remarkable for hitting that market. The loss of any purely American Made Gun Company is a sad thing no matter your opinion on their product.

I was not able to locate any current production numbers, but the last time I checked about 5 years ago, SCCY Industries’ first pistol, the CPX-1 9mm DAO had already sold over half a million units. That is a lot of pocket guns.

The Owner/Designer is Joe Roebuck, a tool and die maker and mechanical engineer, who back in 2003, founded SCCY Industries, initially named Skyy Industries to build pistols. His dream was to build an all-American produced pistol of high-quality and be both reliable and affordable to the average American. Building everything under one roof at the company headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida, gained a reputation for innovative designs and commitment to quality at a very reasonable price.

I met Joe Roebuck twice and enjoyed talking with him about his company. Were his .380’s and 9mm’s the greatest thing since sliced bread? Nope. But they met his goals of what he set out to do and for 20+ years he and the company kept innovating and upgrading their products for a loyal fan base.

Changes included offering .380 and 9mm pistols, adding stainless steel slides and red dot sights, starting with a DAO trigger in the CPX1 and CPX-2 and then working up to the DVG-1 with a Glock-like striker trigger system. Joe also designed a new lock up and recoil system to make the guns easier to manipulate and more accurate. The polymer grips came in many different colors for a very reasonable cost.

Some people had problems with these guns dependability (like any other gun or small machine- some don’t work right, or wear out), but SCCY offered a No Questions Asked Lifetime Warranty which even travelled with the gun to subsequent owners. I had things I did not like about the individual guns, but I still held the idea aloft- an inhouse American produced gun for reasonable price for ordinary citizens.

SCCY was reputedly more than just a company; it was called a community. One source relates the engineers, designers, marketers, and support staff, all played a crucial role in its 20+ year success. The company encouraged employees to contribute ideas and take initiative. The other very cool thing about the company- is near legend. Twice a year Joe Roebuck would walk the employee parking lot, find the crummiest car in the lot, and give the employee/owner a new car. Who does that?

Factors Leading to Closure
Why have they closed? I have no inside information, but I am aware the costs associated with producing anything in America have increased greatly in recent years and global supply chains have bottlenecked. You don’t have to believe me, just go to a restaurant and see how much your breakfast costs compared to about four years ago. It may have been impossible to keep up with the costs of raw materials or even obtaining the materials to produce the pistols.

SCCY also faced very severe competition from bigger companies and overseas companies who were selling small EDC pistols at lower prices. Those big companies would have a much larger money base, may have much lower production and labor costs overseas, and could afford more economic losses in the production vs sales dollars. The market was full and the cost of producing the same budget guns went up- hard to survive.

One source I saw said SCCY worked with employees for severance and job placements. Sounds like Joe still at work for his employees to me.