Hints and tips:
...At the gun store in Holon, a group inside watched safety videos while a harried clerk rang up sales for new Smith & Wesson handguns, having run out of the perennial favourite: the 9mm Glock nicknamed “Masada...
...Chart of the day While the damage done by a semi-automatic is diabolical, rifles account for just 5 per cent of US firearm homicides — a figure that has not changed in two decades....
...At the booth that was selling semi-automatics, most shoppers were either African American or Latino....
...Smith & Wesson is up 12 per cent over the past month, but remains down nearly a third over 12 months....
...It is no coincidence that the incidence of mass shootings has risen dramatically since 2004 when the ten-year ban on semi-automatic weapons expired....
...I note that amid a near-bear market in US stocks, the share price of Smith & Wesson and other gun companies has surged since Tuesday....
...Shares in Smith & Wesson have more than doubled this year, taking them close to three-year highs. Sturm Ruger is closing in on its 2014 peak after advancing 70 per cent for the year to date....
...The company is privately held, but shares in American Outdoor, a rival formerly known as Smith & Wesson, fell 2 per cent in morning trading....
...American Outdoor Brands, the owner of Smith & Wesson, rose 1.1 per cent. Sturm, Ruger & Co. was up 2 per cent....
...Shareholders voted to require American Outdoor Brands, owner of Smith & Wesson, to provide evidence it is working on gun safety and monitoring violence associated with its products, following the mass shooting...
...Let’s not forget that the perpetrators of these massacres tend to be armed with semi-automatic or automatic weapons. So are we sure a mere handgun will be enough for the head of history?...
...The shooter had used a 9mm semi-automatic handgun which had been legally owned, police said....
...Shares in Sturm Ruger extended earlier declines to trade down 3.9 per cent at a five-month low of $47.05, while American Outdoor Brands, previously known as Smith & Wesson, was down 4.4 per cent at $9.68...
...Since the Florida shooting two weeks ago, American Outdoor Brands — formerly known as Smith & Wesson — Sturm Ruger and Vista Outdoor are down 13.4 per cent, 8 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively....
...The shooter, Omar Mateen, used the same semi-automatic AR-15, a killing machine designed by and for the US military, that Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook killer, had used....
...So that for a time, when she was out alone at night, she carried a .38 calibre 5-shot Smith & Wesson Chief’s Special in her jacket pocket....
...Manufacturer Smith & Wesson estimates the US consumer market for “modern sporting rifles”, the industry’s preferred term, to be $489m compared with $1.5bn for handguns and $632m for hunting firearms....
...Vanguard, which has a $41.9m exposure to Smith & Wesson and $70.3m in Sturm, Ruger, mostly through passively managed index funds, said it has a fiduciary obligation “to manage funds in the best interest...
...Last month the $154bn California State Teachers’ Retirement System – the second-largest public pension plan in the US – announced plans to sell holdings in three gun makers that produce semi-automatic weapons...
...One such semi-automatic rifle, the Bushmaster .223, was used to kill 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut....
...They are generally based on the AR-15 design, developed for the US Army, but sold for civilian use in semi-automatic guise....
...Illustrating the risks to public order and safety, the authorities responded to a series of police protests this month by agreeing to issue their lower-ranking police with 100,000 9mm semi-automatic handguns...
...A family with two children examined a hunting rifle while a young couple inquired about a 9mm handgun....
...& Wesson .357 Magnum, then a .45 ACP semi-automatic and finally a lever-action rifle like the one James Stewart uses in Winchester 73, but chambered for a .44 Magnum cartridge, Dirty Harry’s ammunition...
...However, most have licences for bolt-action rifles and shotguns, with a smattering of semi-automatic weapons, and ownership of heavier weapons and handguns is usually much more restrictive....
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