Gun sales and stocks are up across the nation following the massacre in California and President Barack Obama’s primetime speech calling for stricter gun control.
Two terrorists killed 14 people and wounded 21 others in San Bernardino recently, and no one at the holiday party had a gun to fight back.
Following the massacre, Obama called for stricter laws on gun control.
Both situations have prompted both gun sales and stocks to increase across the United States.
Local Sales Increasing
In Wake County in North Carolina, multiple dealers have seen more sales.
“With Obama making the statement that he wants to change legislation, get it to where its 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, told WRAL.
“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.”
In Peoria, Illinois, Allegiant Firearms is seeing more business.
“It actually increases the sales of firearms when they, when an individual thinks they will not be able to protect themselves,” owner Jeff Skelton told WCIA.
In Seattle, Fall City Firearms has seen sales increase by 50 percent since the shooting and it was expected to go up even more after Obama’s speech.
“This political climate is definitely going to increase firearm sales,” owner Lee Stallman told Q13. ““Short term sales will skyrocket.”
At one gun store in San Bernardino, the line to buy a gun was four hours on December 7.
“It shouldn’t have happened in San Bernardino, but it did. It could happen anywhere, so I’m going to make sure I’m protected,” Aaron Wilson, who bought his first handgun, told ABC7.
Background Checks and Handguns
The number of background checks processed by the FBI on Black Friday set an all-time record, reported NBC, coming in at 185,345. And the background checks this November was an 8 percent increase compared to last November.
Brian Ruttenbur, equity analyst at BB&T Capital Markets, noted that the checks aren’t an exact proxy for gun sales but do act as a useful metric to gauge demand.
“Handgun sales are just going through the roof. It’s about personal protection,” he said.
He did note that while more handguns are being bought, sales of rifles have actually decreased over the past year.
“It’s primarily small, inexpensive handguns that are flying off the shelves,” he said. “Handguns were up 22.5 percent for month of November, and that’s the second biggest November ever,” he said.
Some of the increase comes from women buying more guns as the industry helps increase demand from them by tailoring the products, including slimming down guns.
Stocks Rise Too
Shares of two publicly traded gun makers rose on December 7, a day after Obama’s call for the stricter gun laws.
Smith & Wessen closed 8 percent higher while Sturm Ruger & Co. rose 6 percent on Monday, reported Marketwatch.
The former has climbed 116 percent so far this year while the latter has jumped 66 percent overall.
“Obama on Sunday night said no one on the no-fly list should be able to buy a gun and that it should be harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons like the ones used in the San Bernardino massacre,” it noted.
“But with Congress in paralysis on the issue, the logic on Wall Street is that the increased talk of gun restriction will spur more sales, as has happened in previous instances.”
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