Smith & Wesson has announced that their quarterly sales from November 2015 through January 2016 netted $210.8 million—greatly exceeding analysts forecasted revenue of $174.9 million. According to results released Thursday by the Springfield gun manufacturer, this is a 61.5-percent increase from the $130.5 million in recorded sales for the same quarter a year ago. Sales of Smith & Wesson handguns used for self-defense fared particularly well.
Smith & Wesson’s financial performance reveals the same pattern that we often see when the number of background checks performed by the FBI, which is an approximate gauge of gun sales at a national level, suddenly spike. Time after time, firearms sales increase following highly publicized incidents—but more importantly, after the calls for gun control that nearly always follow.
