Many Americans are solidly behind the right to own guns. In a Gallup poll conducted in October, only 43 percent of respondents said they supported stricter gun laws — an all-time low since the company first asked the question in 1990. And 47 percent reported that there was a gun in their home or on their property, the highest level of self-reported gun ownership since 1993, according to the poll, which canvassed about 1,000 adults in early October.

Earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed a “right to carry” bill that would require states to recognize one another’s permits to carry concealed weapons. If the bill passes the Senate, people in states with weaker concealed-weapon regulations would be able to carry concealed handguns into states like California, which requires extensive background checks.

The development would be good news for handgun makers like Colt and Smith & Wesson, but wouldn’t be much help to the Freedom Group, which focuses on long guns.

That, however, may be changing. Not long ago, Remington introduced the Remington 1911 R1, its first pistol in decades. Industry analysts speculate that the Freedom Group might next go shopping for a handgun maker to expand its presence in that segment of the market.

“At the right price,” says Jim Barrett, an analyst at CL King who covers firearms companies, “it would be logical for them to be interested in one of the premier handgun manufacturers.”

But, in an industry with few independent players left, the big question is this: What is Freedom Group’s long-term strategy? Because the company is private, outsiders can only speculate.

The Freedom Group had planned to go public, but backed away earlier this year when the financial markets turned turbulent. As of the end of September, the company had nearly half a billion dollars in debt, according to a third-quarter earnings report available on the Freedom Group’s Web site. That includes about $225 million in debt that the company raised last year to pay itself a special dividend used to buy back preferred stock from Cerberus, according to a company prospectus filed with the S.E.C.