Why is there a persistent lack of gunsmiths?

I worked a few years with one of the best gunsmiths in the Pacific Northwest. CSM James Brock, Retired US Army. I ran his retail department, but was able to glean a lot of knowledge from him about firearms. He was a cantankerous old cuss, but sure knew his business. He opened his business in 1973 and closed it 4 years ago. He passed last year. RIP, Jim.

As to the OP question, I believe the main reason the trade has decreased is far too many people do not want to spend the money for quality work. We live in a "throw-away" society and gun owners are no exception.

Those that were really go at their job, are retiring, and no one wants to step up to fill their shoes brother SPC David S.

Kids have avoided trades for years, even fewer journeymen or masters. Game designers and coders name their price. STEM not so attractive either with the coins, relative to others.

SFC (Join to see) gave a response that fits with a lot of campfire talk. That and just a general aversion folks have these days to any work that doesn't involve a flat screen.

There are some gunsmiths around, but they are very busy. The gunsmith at Addison's is chronically overloaded, and is only doing things like mounting scopes and sighting in rifles and scopes that were bought there.

Because way back when, the ATF decided gunsmiths had to keep records (just like an FFL dealer) of the weapons they worked on, not a 4473 but if you they keep the weapon overnight they are required to maintain an acquisition and disposal record. These records are can be inspected at any time and must be turned over to the ATF when you decide to go out of business or retire. I, for one, refused to be part of their registry program.

The work is expensive. I mean customer work on a rifle stock is a lot of and can take a long time. It can be too expensive for most people to want to pay for it.

Stuff like Glock/mp ect. Can have the parts replaced at home without any experience. The records and safety required are also crazy.

As far as trades go you have to work your butt off to make almost no many in many places and in many trades you are worked to death before you are old enough to retire.

I took a few classes from one of the top gunsmithing programs and quite frankly it wasn't beginner friendly and was very difficult for me .without advanced tools to pass the tests

A lot of people can also do the work at home. You won't have a lot of the custom hunting rifles etc.

Lastly, I went to school in NC there are few accredited gun smithing programs in the US. So the training and requirements are all over the place.

Skilled trades in general are hurting. Few are welling to do the work to learn a profession. They estimate we are nearly a half a million shy mechanics. Tool and die makers, die sinkers can work as long as they able. My father at 76 was still getting job offers. Before retiring for health reasons GM hired a guy to move the dies and get his tools just to keep him on the job.

I spent 4 years in the Smalls Arms shop at LeJeune, many moons ago. I looked into the training required for civilian weapons and the expense of the materials was atrocious, let alone the expansive paperwork involved to become a registered gunsmith.

Could be your area is extremely unfriendly politically to lawful gun owners. Same goes with electricians and plumbers. Todays society shows more respect to pieces of paper or celebrity than to the working stiff.