By Don Miller, Contributing Writer, Money Morning
Obamageddon......who needs zombies.The gun business is booming.
Record Orders at Sturm, Ruger & Co.
Sturm, Ruger & Co. (NYSE: RGR) said it received orders for more than one million units in the first quarter, forcing the company to stop accepting new orders.
"Despite the company's continuing successful efforts to increase production rates, the incoming order rate exceeds our capacity...consequently, the company has temporarily suspended the acceptance of new orders," CEO Michael O. Fifer said in a statement.
Here's what's fueling the feeding frenzy in firearms...
In good times and bad, sales of firearms have proven steady and relatively immune to the economic cycles that trouble other industries.
But nothing fuels gun sales like uncertainty, and nothing fuels uncertainty like an election--- especially one that puts a Democrat in the White House.
Whether that's rational or not, firearm sales increased dramatically in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008 and as Barack Obama took office in 2009.
"People were rushing out to buy guns, because they were worried [President Obama] was going to take their guns away," William J. Vizzard, professor of criminal justice at California State University told the Huffington Post. "He didn't have a single proposal on the table for gun laws. It defies reason. It's a culture unto itself." (Actually he is talking bollox, Obama has been anti gun throughout his career)
Now, Americans are once again scrambling to buy guns on fears that the president will be reelected. They reason that as a second-term president, he will be free to impose new restrictions on firearms without having to worry about getting re-elected.
In fact, according to National Rifle Association (NRA) President Wayne LaPierre, the administration's policies are "part of a massive Obama conspiracy to deceive voters and hide his true intentions to destroy the Second Amendment during his second term."
For decades, the NRA has been beating the drum of individual gun ownership as a sacred part of American freedom, wielding its power in Washington to beat back proposed restrictions on the right to bear arms.
The general state of the economy is also helping to boost gun stocks.
Americans are constantly bombarded with media reports of doomsday scenarios, dollar devaluation and economic chaos.
Many take this end-of-the-world scenario very seriously, and are arming themselves to the teeth to protect themselves.
"Indicators reveal growing interest among citizens, particularly women, in owning a firearm for personal and home protection," the NSSF noted in its statement.
