Obama Lashes Out Against Smith & Wesson With SEC Investigation

Financial Scheme to Ruin Gun Manufacturer

As the saying goes, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. The police are reasonably good at mopping up a crime scene, but when an armed robber breaks into your house, you want to arm yourself first, and then call the police.

The idea that somehow the government can force everyone to turn in their weapons is preposterous, but that is the objective of Obama and the Left. They use a variety of schemes, from demanding that all bullets carry a product identity code, thus making them stupidly expensive, to banning rifles with unusual, decorative modifications such as trigger stocks and flash suppressors, and naming them assault rifles, and this subject to ban.

Make no mistake, though, the ultimate goal is the disarming of American. So it is ironic that Obama, the most insistent foe that gun manufacturers have ever seen, is actually the main driver for increased sales of weapons.

Whenever there is a violent act by a crazy person or an Islamic terrorist, as happened in San Bernardino for example, Obama will hold a press conference and rather than mourn with the families who have lost loved ones, he will focus his remarks on the need to limit access to guns.

He would prefer to ban them, but he wants to approach this one step at a time. But Americans, sensing his true objective, and not willing to be made victims in the next violent outburst, make a logical decision and go out and buy one or more weapons for their own protection and that of their families. So the virulently anti-gun president is actually the one that is driving increased gun sales.  See the chart below to follow the trend.

The other inconvenient truth is that Obama can also affect the stock prices of gun manufacturers, based on what he says.

 Just last Friday the stock price of Smith & Wesson hit an all time high on expectations gun sales are about to hit even greater all time highs in the coming weeks.

Alas, as it turns out, Obama is not a fan of efficient market irony and instead of letting the chips on gun control fall where they may especially if it means record stock prices for the shareholders of SWHC and RGR, the president – in pulling a page straight out of the “US Government vs Exxon” in which the company will soon be prosecuted over its Global Warming denials as reported previously – has decided to take his vendetta with US gun makers to the next level and as the NYT reported overnight, “the New York City public advocate on Monday asked federal regulators to investigate whether the gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson had made adequate disclosures in its financial statements.”

One would think that being in compliance with all existing SEC regulatory requirements would be sufficient, but when one is on Obama’s black list there are additional requirements for “adequate disclosure” one must follow, especially the ones that one does not know about because they appear only after the fact.

In an eight-page letter, the public advocate, Letitia James, said the Securities and Exchange Commission should examine whether Smith & Wesson misrepresented or omitted information about how often its products are involved in crimes and what it has done to keep its guns out of the hands of criminals.

In the letter “public advocate” Letitia James says that “with the increase in mass shootings, public concern about the proliferation of firearms has animated a national dialogue about gun control measures, interstate gun trafficking, and whether gun manufacturers should take additional steps to ensure that their products do not end up in the hands of criminals,” the letter says. “Smith & Wesson knows that it is at risk of grave reputational harm.”

So Obama has decided that if the nation will not follow his advice to disarm, he will find ways to financially punish gun manufacturers and make their products much more expensive, thus depriving the least able to afford weaponry the chance to buy even the most inexpensive product. And even as sales of guns goes up when there is social upheaval, the stock price goes down as the potential for government meddling and regulation spooks investors who are looking for a more steady, unscathed investment vehicle.

It is absolutely outrageous that the president and his minions would intentionally harm a legal American business and dramatically damage the portfolios of those who invest in them. There is every likelihood that Obama will conjure up some other sneaky way to damage the industry in his last year in office.

He has shown that ethics and legal methodology are only temporary impediments to achieving his goal of remaking this nation, and his ego is such that the only opinion that counts is his. As shown below, the most recent threat had a significant impact on Smith and Wesson stock prices, which is clearly to his liking. That may be legal, but it is surely not the proper role of a president.

Source: www.zerohedge.com