Talking About Banning Guns Is Actually Great For The Gun Industry

While sales dipped in the days following December's school shooting in Newtown, Conn., many gun manufacturers such as Sturm Ruger and Smith & Wesson have seen a serious increase in their stock price. As Reuters reports:

In the four days after the Newton shootings, Sturm Ruger's shares fell 15 percent to a six-month low. The stock has recovered those losses and closed on Feb. 22 at $53.67, up more than 12 percent since Obama laid out gun control plans on Jan. 16.

Smith & Wesson's shares fell more than 18 percent after Newtown, but now trade nearly 20 percent above the four-month low they hit in December. They closed at $9.18 on Feb. 22.

That surge is thanks in part to the efforts of the NRA, who has been hammering the Obama administration with advertisements like this one:

The ad says [a Department of Justice memo] shows that the administration "believes that a gun ban will not work without mandatory gun confiscation" and thinks universal background checks "won't work without requiring national gun registration" — ideas the president has not proposed or expressed support for.

"Still think President Obama's proposals sound reasonable?" Chris W. Cox, the NRA's chief Washington lobbyist, says in the ad.

But there's even more good news for the industry beyond gun manufacturers. Ammo has been flying off the shelves so fast that people are taking to Twitter to complain about it, and even some gun shops are reporting guns being sold out.

“We were just swamped in here as soon as he got off the news,” Bill Loane of Pasadena Pawn & Gun in Maryland told NBC News. “People were just pouring through the door.”

Wall Street analysts expect Smith & Wesson to report revenue of $133.7 million, a 36 percent rise over the same period a year ago. The forecast for Sturm Ruger's is projected to grow 30 percent to $121.5 million.