In the wake of the Parkland massacre, over a dozen companies cut ties with the NRA – including Hertz, Delta and Metlife.
Wall St. is also getting in on the outrage.
While Bank of America is “reexamining relationships with clients who make AR-15s,” and Blackrock – the world’s largest money manger – is sitting down with gunmakers Sturm Ruger and American Outdoor Brands (Smith & Wesson), of which they’re the largest shareholders, investment giant Blackstone Group, LP fired off a Saturday letter to outside managers at a dozen hedge funds, asking them to detail their holdings in companies that make or sell guns.
The letter demands an answer by Sunday night – a 24 hour turnaround.
In the message, Blackstone executives apologized for the weekend intrusion, saying that Blackstone’s senior management wanted to know the information as soon as possible.
Blackstone has taken steps over the years to eliminate its exposure to guns across its various lines of business. –WSJ
Gunmakers may also come under pressure from pensions – such as Florida’s state pension, which holds shares of American Outdoor Brands. As Bloomberg put it, “as Florida teachers grieve over the mass shooting that left 17 students and colleagues dead last week, some of them may be surprised to learn they’ve been helping fund the firearms industry—including the company that made the gun used that bloody Wednesday.”
Bank of America
Meanwhile, BofA is going to be “joining other companies in our industry to examine what we can do to help end the tragedy of mass shootings,” the bank said in a statement.
Flood of demand
Meanwhile, evidence suggests gunmakers are about to have a great quarter or two – with record attendance at the Florida Gun Show. Organizer Steve Fernandez said they’ve never seen such a large crowd .
“Some of the people attending are afraid that future legislation will impact their gun ownership rights,” said Fernandez. That said, 95% of the vendors at this weekend’s Florida Gun Show are required to run background checks since they are licensed dealers.
This is nothing new. Under President Obama – dubbed the “greatest gun salesman in America” – FBI firearm background checks skyrocketed amid a record 52,600 weapons sold daily under his administration as of June 2016.
And take a look at the Google trends search for “buy ar15” below – note the spike right after the Las Vegas shooting followed by searches conducted in the wake of the Parkland massacre.
Meanwhile, both $RGR and $AOBC seeem to be sucking wind… perhaps over recent moves by Wall St. and others against the NRA and other pro-Second Amerndment entities.
Interesting…
On March 13th, 1996 in Dunblane, Scotland a shooter entered the Dunblane Primary School and “murdered” 16 children – it was a false flag – strict gun control measures and gun bans were enacted.
On April 28, 1996, in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, another mass shooting occurred – 35 people were killed – it was a false flag – strict gun control measures and gun bans were enacted.
Are we connecting the dots?
This hype makes me poor money all over guns right now. I bought a few guns for bumpstocks conversions yeasterday!! Thank you. Just so you know. Full auto complete guns was banned in the 80’s. These same weapons are now still sold starting at $10k-20k each.
An investment; yes! Ban them and I will 100x my monies. Keep playing stawkers when the real cash is right in front of you bitches.
buy two FA bumbstocks and make a gatlin gun. By three and make them drul over your brass eater.
The people with the most guns WINS!
Read that again, the peopl with the most badass guns wins the game.
I’ll make a deal with you. Write in again in comprehensible English and I will attempt to read it, @Not You.