The Gun Market Likes Obama

2009 Sales (not shown) Even Bigger

But not in the way that you thing.

There has been much written about how Barack Obama inspired paranoia is boosting gun sales.

Well, we are now seeing some indications that this string is playing out in the handgun market. On June 22, Smith and Wesson was talking about a huge backlog:

Our firearms backlog continued to increase dramatically during the quarter, and reached its peak at $268 million dollars by the end of April. That level is $218 million dollars higher than the same quarter one year ago.

(emphasis mine)

That's a 436% increase in backlog.

But on September 9, the news is not quite so rosy:

Our firearms backlog was $177.5 million at the end of the first quarter. Cancellations reduced backlog by approximately 10% during the quarter. It is important to note that our backlog always represents product that has been ordered but not yet shipped. As a result, it is possible that portions of the backlog could be canceled if demand should suddenly drop.

(emphasis mine)

As John Hempton notes, speaking from an investors perspective:

The backlog dropped from $268 million to $178 million – a drop of 90 million. Ten percent of that (say $27 million) was order cancellation – but a net $63 million of sales came from the backlog. Total sales were 102 million – and less than 100 million in firearms. The rate at which Americans are placing orders for new Smith and Wesson handguns is collapsing.

The company did not tell us the current forward order book. At that rate of collapse what they are facing is a disaster.

(emphasis original)

It appears that the right wing is running out of hate.

I'm shocked, I thought that it was an inexhaustible commodity.