Fear of Hillary Clinton victory sends gun manufacturer sales and profits soaring

One of the biggest manufacturers of hand guns and assault rifles in the United States is reporting soaring sales in the run-up to the presidential election as enthusiasts fear that a Hillary Clinton victory over Donald Trump could lead to restrictive new gun-control measures.

Sturm, Ruger, maker of AR-type assault rifles as well as an array of other rifles and pistols, said in an earnings call that sales rose by one third, to $161.4 million, in the quarter that ended 1 October compared to the same period last year.

That stellar performance saw a remarkable 66 per cent jump in the Connecticut-based per-share earnings.

Better known as just Ruger, the company is apparently not alone in reaping the benefits of gun owners feeling nervy about the possibility of Ms Clinton becoming the 45th president and also visiting gun shops in hopes of arming themselves for self-protection purposes.

Company officials said the sudden jump in sales had been seen across the industry in recent months as the US presidential election has approached, data that is made available through FBI reporting of the number of background checks ordered by gun shops at moments of sale.

This week The Independent reporting from one family gun shop in Michigan where the owners admitted they were bracing for “crazy days” after the election if Ms Clinton declared the winner. The same shop, Freedom Firearms, is profiled in a documentary, Gun Shop, airing on Channel 4 in Britain on Thursday.

Ms Clinton has said that she would attempt to reinstate an assault weapon ban that expired under George W. Bush if she becomes president. She has also pledged to expand background checks and hold gun manufacturers and dealers legally accountable for gun violence.

By contrast, Mr Trump has been endorsed by the powerful National Rifle Association, NRA, in part because of his robust defence on the campaign trail of the second amendment to the US Constitution that guarantees the right to bear arms. He contends that Ms Clinton would seek to overturn the amendment, a claim that she has strenuously denied.

Earlier this year, Ruger said that it would be donating $2 to the NRA for every gun sold and publicly urged voters to fight for the protection of the second amendment.

The company said its surge in sales was also partly a result of new gun models, including a new assault model called the AR-556 which is a variant of the popular AR-15. While they are often referred to as assault rifles, gun shops prefer to call them modern sporting rifles.

The AR-15 is the model of gun used in several recent mass shootings in America, including the massacres at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 and the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June this year.

It is not unusual that gun sales rise at election time in the US. The more dramatic surges usually come in the immediate aftermath of mass shootings, however, as buyers both feel greater concern about their own safety and fear a US government response to crack down sales.

In the year that followed Newton, Sturm Ruger, Remington Outdoor, and Smith & Wesson - the three most important gun manufacturers in the US - saw a windfall of over $390 million in profits on record sales. Shares in publicly traded Sturm Ruger and Smith & Wesson jumped more than 70 percent in the same year.

Asked about Clinton by CNNMoney during an August earnings call, Sturm's outgoing CEO, Michael Fifer, said it was a unique time because a presidential nominee was “actively campaigning against the lawful commerce in arms.”