Following the San Bernardino gun attacks that killed 14 on Wednesday, gun stocks are up, in anticipation of major sales.
Smith & Wesson shares have spiked in the last two days of American trading, and guns flew off the shelves on Black Friday this year, following a brutal first ten months of U.S. mass shootings in 2015.
Of this year’s Black Friday gun sales, the FBI’s Stephen Fischer said Wednesday, “This was an approximate 5 percent increase over the 175,754 received on Black Friday 2014.”
“The previous high for receipts were the 177,170 received on 21 December 2012,” about a week after the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shootings that killed 28.
A similiar rush is expected following Wednesday’s carnage in California.
The Guardian issued a report Sunday lamenting that “the phenomenon appears bleak for advocates of tighter controls,” but noted that “the profits generated by firearms sales should, some campaigners believe, intensify public attention on the corporations and retailers who benefit.”
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton noted this development Sunday on “This Week.”
“With respect to the gun issues, it’s legal to buy guns in America,” Clinton said. “If you’re eligible to buy a gun, you can go buy a gun, and hundreds of thousands apparently are, in the aftermath of what happened in San Bernardino.”
