The firearms industry is a relational business. Throughout the warp and weave of the industry you’ll find families. They may be running a startup where mom handles the books, dad handles the inventory and the kids stock the store shelves, or they might be the third, fourth, or even fifth generation of managers who have grown up in the industry and are the latest caretakers of the family business.

Slowly, but more often than before, those companies are being headed by women.

The latest generational ownership change is at Ohio-based MKS Supply. There, Kara Brown-Bosenberg has assumed the majority ownership position that formerly belonged to her father.

She’s the first female to head the company, but certainly no newcomer to the business, or shooting and hunting. A shooter since she was only eight years old, she’s been a minority owner of MKS since 2019. This year, she assumes both the top slot and majority ownership.

QA took advantage of the NASGW in Kansas City to spend a few minutes with her to talk about the succession, the education given her by her father, and what she sees ahead for the industry.

Kara Brown-Bosenberg continues the family ownership and management of MKS Supply. She also joins a growing number of women heading companies in the outdoor space.

Kara Boesenberg
In senior positions? I would say probably six. Six, yeah, that would be my guess.

Kara Boesenberg
I mean, well, obviously there is more pressure on me, you know. But I perform well under pressure. For me, the change is really not much, to be quite honest, because I've had my father, who's been a good mentor to me, who's taught me to respect and treat employees and people customers, right? 

So the change is really very seamless in terms of what I'm doing now to what I'm doing as an owner, and how the company, you know, business flows, and how we continue on.

Kara Boesenberg
Well, the morals that my parents instilled into me and our whole family at a young age has just been that you treat people right. People who like you and respect you are going to want to work more for you and for the betterment of the company.

So I just find that it's important that you have a good work environment.

You know, we're very small, we're lean, and our marketing facility, there's about 16 of us that I see every day. I'm with them more than I'm with my children.

So we have a really good environment. And then at the at the factory as well. You know, at the different factories you work with, it's the same, it's the same way.

We treat employees with respect. We care for them like their family.

And I think that that in return, makes us have a great company and a great work life experience.

Kara Boesenberg
So we have a few new products coming out. Inland is coming out with a 22 suppressor. It's a monocore aluminum suppressor that's self serviceable. It's going to retail for about 359 and it's going to come in an MTM hard case. We love to work with MTM and support them as a local company.

The nice part about this is it's a very simple model, and t you can use our DB Foam to lower the decibels even further. So it’s a really strong model at an affordable price.

We all were hoping for the Hearing Protection Act to pass, but It didn’t. Now, with the time for the tax stamp approval, we see more and more people are getting into using suppressors.

As somebody with young kids, I love that, because it's much more enjoyable to shoot with a suppressor. And it's not as intimidating for the new shooters or the youth shooters.

So that's we're really excited about. The AM 22 from Inland. And then in terms of High Point, we are coming out with a braced pistol model. And it's basically our carbine with a shorter barrel that can accept a brace. So it is a pistol model,

Kara Boesenberg
Yes, but that suppressor had a polymer core, so slight difference on that. But, yes, the DB foam has been around for a long time. Not only is it does it lower the decibels;  it's lubricating and cleaning. And it's really cool because it will stay in the gun in the foam form. So you can actually fill this in your firearm, maybe a hunting gun, and take it out and it's ready to go. So it's a really good product, yeah, lubed and everything ready to go.

Kara Boesenberg
We're American based company, so we've been lucky to not have supply chain interruptions, so that's been so nice. But I do see there's been a shift for a lot of companies. We're fortunate to not have to deal with that because we're American and most of our items are made in house- down to our screws. We have a Swiss screw machine, so we have not been as affected by that.

Now, pricing, of course, is a little bit different. Logistics for us has become a big factor in our pricing, because we are very cost sensitive, right? We supply entry level, low cost products.

So when you add $7 onto each box shipping, that's a big difference for our customers. We recognize that. We don't have our name on the side of NASCARs. We produce products to be able to supply anyone who wants to exercise their Second Amendment, right. So we're not flashy, you know? We're not lining in our pockets or going all over the world in private jets. In doing that, we're making sure that we can keep our product cost efficient for the customer.

Kara Boesenberg
Labor, yep, absolutely. We want to support our employees as much as possible. And we recognize that life is expensive right now, so we always try to be respectful of that. And, you know, help them as much as we can. Labor is definitely a large chunk of the cost of our products.

Kara Boesenberg
Always.

Kara Boesenberg
Fortunately, we haven’t had that problem. But as I said, we run a lean operation.