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President Obama and gun control advocates may want to limit your right to purchase firearms, but they are not opposed to owning stock in gun and ammo manufacturers.
An investigation by Reuters revealed that Obama and other anti-gun Democrats have money invested in funds that involve gun stocks.
President Obama has $100,000 invested in a $16 billion Illinois state pension plan from his days in the state senate. That $16 billion plan has $5 million invested directly in several gun and ammo makers, and it also includes a small-cap mutual fund with a $9.5 million stake in Smith & Wesson, the news service reported.
But it’s not simply gun control advocates from the Illinois state legislature who have money invested in gun and ammo stocks. US Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), a leading advocate of gun control, has $115,000 invested in an S Fund through the federal Thrift Savings Plan that involves stock in gun companies. The S Fund lets members of Congress invest in mutual funds such as the First Eagle Global Fund, which has $196.9 million worth of stock in ammo and gun maker Vista Outdoor.
Former US Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (D-New York), a relentless gun control crusader when she was in office, owned between $3,003 and $45,000 in exchange traded funds with stakes in gun and ammo makers, Reuters reported. McCarthy also invested between $2,002 and $30,000 in college savings plans for her grandchildren that involved firearms stocks.
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Gun ownership has soared under Obama’s presidency and has been further propelled in recent months in response to a series of mass shootings.
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Smith & Wesson’s stock value increased by 80 percent between September 2014 and September 2015, Market Madhouse reported. During the same period, applications for background checks increased by 20 percent, and observers credited the increase to louder demands for gun control.
“The politics of gun control could stay in the headlines, which we believe could lead to a record year (for gun stocks),” Chris Krueger, a senior research analyst at Lake Street Capital, wrote to investors in January.
Gun sales increased again after President Obama announced plans to expand background checks and increase licensing requirements for firearms dealers in the wake of last year’s San Bernardino (California) massacre.
The week of December 20 saw the second highest level of firearms background checks since 1998, the FBI reported.
Gun control demands have prompted firearms and ammo makers to ramp up production, Reuters reported. Vista Outdoor’s ammunition factories have been operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the past two years, the company’s chief financial officer, Stephen Nolan, revealed in November.
Ruger is boosting its inventory in expectation of even heavier demands this year. The company’s CEO, Mike Fifer, is afraid that demand for his products will exceed supply as it did after Obama was first elected.
“Orders at every level of the distribution channel exploded” in the weeks after Obama’s first presidential election in 2008, Fifer said, “and continued to do so for months afterward.”
What is your reaction to Obama and other gun control advocates owning stock in firearm companies? Share your thoughts in the section below:
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