Gun owners respond to Obama's executive action by buying more guns

A customer compares handguns before buying one as a Christmas present at the National Armory gun store on December 23, 2015 in Pompano Beach, Florida

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

published 6 January 2016

Gun owners' response to President Obama's executive action tightening gun restrictions: Buy more guns. In the days leading up to the president's announcement Tuesday, which proposed requiring background checks for all gun sales, allowing more mental health records to be submitted to the background registry, installing new requirements for reporting lost or stolen weapons, and increasing the number of FBI agents processing background checks, gun manufacturers' stocks have steadily climbed, as have the number of gun sales:

Shares of Smith & Wesson jumped 11 percent Tuesday, to $25.86, when the president unveiled his new plan for expanding background checks on gun sales, while Sturm, Ruger & Co.’s stock climbed nearly 7 percent, to $65.54.For gun-rights groups, the numbers serve to validate a long-running joke within the industry: Obama is the gun salesman of the year. [The Hill]

This response from gun owners is hardly an anomaly — nor is it unexpected. For Smith & Wesson, stocks have been rising ever since Obama even first hinted at the idea of executive action on guns in the midst of numerous mass shootings. Since October, The Hill reports that the gun manufacturer's stock has risen "nearly 50 percent." On Monday — just a day before Obama's announcement — Smith & Wesson raised its sales forecast by 16 percent.