Firearms maker Smith and Wesson Holding Corp. posted better than expected earnings on Tuesday, as investors predict the gun control debate, driven by President Obama and Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, will only spur sales.
The company boosted its revenue outlook for its fiscal year to as much as $635 million as well as increased its earnings forecast. Shares of the gun maker have spiked to an eight-year high this week as the terrorist attacks in California and Paris have 2nd Amendment supporters stocking up on their supplies.
“The [number one] driver of firearms sales is fear,” Brian Ruttenbur, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets, told Bloomberg News. “Primarily, fear of registration restrictions, banning and things like that.”
On Sunday, Mr. Obama made his case for tighter gun restrictions, calling for an action that would prevent people on no-fly lists from obtaining guns. Senate Republicans rejected such a ban yesterday.
Gun production has doubled under the Obama administration as people fear tighter gun control laws. In the week after the California attack, the anti-gun rhetoric followed by it caused a spike in firearms sales nationwide, the gun blog Bearing Arms said.
“With Obama making the statement that he wants to change legislation, get it to where it’s harder for the public to purchase high-capacity firearms, folks are going to start running to get what they can get,” Clay Ausley, the owner of Fuquay Gun & Gold, located in North Carolina, told the blog. “The heaviest hitters have been ammunition and high-capacity magazines. The AR mags, the AK mags — they have been flowing out of here like water.”
• Kelly Riddell can be reached at kriddell@washingtontimes.com.
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