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Ruger Has Stellar Quarter

May 2, 2012 by

The gun prohibitionists are desperate to promote the meme that the growth in NICS checks do not accurately reflect the growth in firearm sales. Unfortunately, they just cannot ignore financial statement releases from public companies such as Sturm, Ruger & Co. Financial statement releases from public companies are not only released to the public but filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. They must be accurate unlike any statement made by the likes of CSGV and other gun prohibitionists.

Yesterday, after the close of the stock market, Ruger released its first quarter results and they were impressive. Their net earnings per share – profit – nearly doubled as compared to the same quarter in 2011. Moreover, they have orders in hand for 1.2 million firearms which exceed the number shipped in 2011.

The highlights of the results as pointed out by Ruger CEO Michael Fifer:

  • Our earnings nearly doubled from the first quarter of 2011, driven by the 49% growth in sales and our ongoing focus on continuous improvement in our operations.
  • New product introductions were a significant component of our sales growth as new product sales represented $40.8 million or 37% of sales in the first quarter of 2012. New product introductions in the first quarter of 2012 included:
    • Ruger American Rifle
    • SR22 pistol
    • 10/22 Take Down rifle
  • The estimated sell-through of our products from independent distributors to retailers in 2012 increased 62% from the first quarter of 2011. During this period, National Instant Criminal Background Check System (“NICS”) background checks (as adjusted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation) increased 23%.
  • On March 21, 2012, the Company announced that it temporarily suspended the acceptance of new orders. In the first quarter of 2012, orders for 1.2 million units were received by the Company, which exceeded the total units shipped during 2011. The Company anticipates resuming the acceptance of orders at the end of May 2012.
  • Cash generated from operations during the first quarter of 2012 was $21.8 million. At March 31, 2012, our cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaled $95.8 million, an increase of $14.7 million from December 2011. Our current ratio is 3.1 to 1 and we have no debt.
  • In the first quarter of 2012, capital expenditures totaled $3.0 million. We expect to invest approximately $20 million for capital expenditures during 2012.
  • At March 31, 2012, stockholders’ equity was $149.8 million, which equates to a book value of $7.82 per share, of which $5.01 per share was cash and equivalents.
  • On March 31, 2012, the Company completed the fourth and final quarter of its “1.2 Million Gun Challenge to Benefit the NRA.” During this year-long challenge, Ruger donated a total of $1,253,700 to the NRA. We believe that Ruger is the first firearms manufacturer to build and ship more than one million firearms in one year.

The financial tables that accompanied this release can be found here.

I am not an accountant but I generally can understand balance sheets, income statements, and statements of cash flows. Just looking at a few key items you see that their cash from operations increased by over $1 million dollars as compared to the same quarter in 2011, their net inventories are down, and their allowance for obsolete or slow moving inventory fell by almost 60%. The last two items tell me that not only are firearms flying out the door but Ruger is making mostly what people want.

If you have the time and the inclination, you can listen in on Ruger’s Annual Meeting which is today and starts at 9am. I’m sure you will hear lots of cheers from shareholders. If I could have been in New Hampshire today, I would have been one of those cheering the loudest as the stock is trading near its all time high and the quarterly dividend just tripled.

For instructions on how to view or listen to the annual meeting, go here.

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Crimson Trace Announces Laserguard For The M&P Shield

May 1, 2012 by

Crimson Trace has unveiled a prototype Laserguard for the Smith and Wesson M&P Shield. They expect that production units will be ready to ship in the third quarter of this year.

From Iain Harrison:

(Wilsonville, OR) The hottest new pistol at the NRA Annual Meetings will soon have the ultimate in integrated laser sighting solutions for conceal carry and personal protection, befitting the M&P Brand. Crimson Trace today announced the newest prototype from their in-house design and engineering team – a Laserguard® for the single stack M&P Shield in 9mm and 40S&W. At a targeted MSRP of $219, the new sight features their patented instinctive activation that allows the use to activate the laser by simply taking a natural firing grip, with no additional switches to press. Available via their regular dealer network and other channels of distribution, the Shield Laserguard will be officially launched in Q3.

Matching the lines and contours of the Shield, while adding almost no bulk to the weapon, the Laserguard wraps around the pistol’s trigger guard and index on the frame for a seamless, no-gunsmithing fit. Each comes zeroed from the factory at 50 feet and is equipped with windage and elevation screws so that the user can fine tune the system to their own firearm and ammunition and the each unit offers a 4 hour run time on one user-replaceable battery. “We’ve been working with Smith and Wesson on the Shield since the early days of its development,” said Michael Caulk, Director of Engineering for Crimson Trace. “We’re excited to be able to offer Shield owners the industry’s best and most trusted laser sighting design for this excellent compact pistol.”

A picture of the prototype can be seen below.

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Women And Shooting…In Chicago

May 1, 2012 by

We don’t often associate positive media stories about women shooters with Chicago but CBS Chicago ran a story yesterday about the growth of women taking up shooting in the Chicagoland area.

Dianne McGrath used to spend her free time painting or doing needlework. But now her favorite pastime is shooting — something she thought she’d never do.

In fact, until last year, McGrath had never even touched a gun. It was her husband who encouraged her to learn to shoot for her own protection.

“You know, painting, needlework, guns. I don’t see what the problem is. It’s a really good progression,” she says of her new hobby. “It’s just another fun thing to do.”

McGrath says she’ll always remember the first time she fired a gun.

“It was a .22. I picked it up and I think I shook so bad I think the bullet went anywhere but where it was supposed to go,” she says, laughing.

But McGrath got better, and she was hooked. Now she says going to the range is actually more relaxing than needlework.

The only downside to this story is that CBS Chicago reporter Mai Martinez had to go to suburban DuPage County for it. I look forward to the not too distant future when we will see stories like this coming from within Chicago. When we do, it will be due to the legal work of attorneys Alan Gura and David Sigale and to courageous women like Rhonda Ezell and Colleen Lawson who paved the way.

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End Of Semester – Light Blogging

April 30, 2012 by

I will have light to non-existent blogging today and tomorrow due to grading to student projects and final exams. As soon as I get those grades in, life resumes.

Oh, what I’ll do for gun buying money!

UPDATE: Grades submitted! I know students of all ages are happy when the semester and/or school year ends but perhaps not so happy as their teachers.

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Privilege Or Right

April 29, 2012 by 3 Comments

Ana Simvoska of TV-6 – Fox UP – in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has a story posted yesterday concerning concealed carry in the state of Michigan. The station’s Facebook followers wanted to know more about Michigan’s concealed pistol license and what was required to obtain one.

She titled her story, “Concealed carry a privilege, not a right”, because of the information she was given by officials with the Michigan State Police.

Those hoops are a loaded application, fingerprints and a background check. Any felonies, or misdemeanors can disqualify you. That’s because carrying is a privilege not a right, officials said.

“They’re trying to ensure that when they give you the ability to carry concealed that you’re doing so safely, that you don’t have a history of violence, you don’t have a history of mental instability, and certainly that you’ve been a good citizen,” Lt. Robert Pernanski said.

In a few states such as Vermont and Arizona which have constitutional carry, carry is treated as a right and not a privilege. However, in the majority of states it is treated like in Michigan as a privilege.

That said, given the Heller decision which found that the right to keep and bear arms meant both “to possess” and “to carry weapons in case of confrontation” and subsequent decisions such as Woollard and Bateman which confirmed this right exists outside the home, I think states are treading a fine line between privilege and right.

Alan Gura has pointed this out forcefully in many briefs when he writes that the dictum from Heller that states the Second Amendment “is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose” cannot be used to eliminate all carry outside the home. As he wrote in Bateman, “the Court confirmed that there is a right to carry at least some weapons, in some manner, for some purpose.” Gura notes that Justice Stevens in his Heller dissent acknowledged that the Court’s opinion “protected the public carrying of arms”.

While we aren’t there yet, I do think there will come a time when carry (in some form) will be recognized as a right and not a privilege.

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Jimmy Kimmel Mentions Project Gunwalker

April 29, 2012 by 2 Comments

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel was the headliner at the White House Correspondents Dinner last night. Traditionally the comedian who is the headliner will make somewhat funny jokes at the president’s expense. Among the topics that Kimmel brought up was Operation Fast and Furious if only for about 10 seconds.

As the staff of Twitchy noted, most in the audience didn’t get it.

Yes, Virginia, someone in liberal Hollywood finally found the balls to bring up Barack Obama’s bloodiest scandal.

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel made reference to the deadly “Fast and Furious” White House/DOJ gun-walking scandal at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night. Most of the D.C. media and Hollywood types, of course, a) cringed; b) shrugged their shoulders; or c) scratched their heads in abject, willful ignorance.

C-SPAN cameras did not share President Obama or First Lady Michelle Obama’s reactions. Attorney General Eric Holder was nowhere to be seen.

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Gun Nomenclature And The Media

April 28, 2012 by 5 Comments

When it comes to guns, the media is so ignorant. We have all seen the various “Journalist Guide to Firearms Identification” cartoons where every gun is either an AK-47 or a Glock such as the one below.

Thanks to a reporter named John Barna of the Gloucester County (NJ) Times I may have an alternative. Reporting on the sentencing of a felon in possession of a firearm, here is how the firearm in question was identified.

On July 10, 2010, Burks knowingly possessed a 9mm Springfield Armory model XD-9 Sub-Compact Luger pistol, with a 16-round, high-capacity magazine, at a McDonald’s restaurant in Camden. Burks was found with the pistol during an arrest on unrelated weapons charges. Burks had previous felony convictions at the time.

I am still trying to wrap my head around a polymer Luger P.08 much less a sub-compact one made by Springfield Armory in Croatia.

I have a modest suggestion for Mr. Barna and everyone else in the media. The next time you decide to write about a gun as part of a story – even a mere 3-paragraph story – go to the NSSF website and read the “Writer’s Guide to Firearms and Ammunition.” It will keep you from sounding stupid.

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Massad Ayoob On Stand Your Ground Laws

April 28, 2012 by 4 Comments

Massad Ayoob was part of a panel discussion sponsored by the Cato Institute on Stand Your Ground laws on Monday along with Clayton Cramer and Steven Jansen of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

Mas has served as an expert witness since 1979 in cases involving self-defense and is the author of the seminal work In the Gravest Extreme. He served for many years as a Captain in the Grantham, New Hampshire police department and is now a year-round resident of Florida.

If anyone knows anything about self-defense, the legal use of lethal force, and justified shootings it is Massad Ayoob. So when he discusses Stand Your Group laws, I listen. I only wish all the professional agitators at the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) would listen as well.

Below is the presentation he gave as part of the Cato Institute’s panel discussion.

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Contempt Citation In The Works

April 27, 2012 by

Richard Serrano of the LA Times is reporting that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has been given the green light by the GOP House leadership to pursue a Contempt of Congress citation against Attorney General Eric Holder.

The 48-page draft citation is being drawn up by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Top committee officials recently met for most of a day in the House speaker’s office and were given the green light to proceed toward a contempt citation, according to sources who declined to be identified.

If adopted by the GOP-led House, the contempt resolution would be sent to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington or perhaps an independent counsel in an attempt to force the Justice Department to provide tens of thousands of internal documents to the committee.

According to Serrano’s sources, the draft citation says that Holder “obstructed and slowed” the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

As Katie Pavlich says in her post on this contempt citation, “It’s On.”

I hope they are right as this will be more fun than ridiculing Obama for eating dog.

UPDATE: It seems that CBS and the LA Times might have been a bit premature in their forecast of a contempt citation in the works. Either that, or the Republican leadership has chickened out yet again. If I was a betting man, I’d go with the latter and not the former.

From Matt Boyle at the Daily Caller:

After the initial reports, a House Republican leadership aide told The Daily Caller that the LA Times and CBS reports were inaccurate. The GOP leadership aide said that “while there are very legitimate arguments to be made in favor of such an action [holding Holder in contempt], no decision has been made to move forward with one by the Speaker or by House Republican leaders.”

Initially, a spokesperson for Issa refused TheDC’s request for comment. But just hours after TheDC published a story detailing the appearance of infighting between Issa and Boehner, a House oversight committee spokesperson backed off and said the LA Times and CBS reports were inaccurate as well.

“The Justice Department has not fully cooperated with the investigation into gunwalking that occurred in Operation Fast and Furious,” the committee spokesperson told TheDC. “The House Oversight Committee continues to make necessary preparations to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt if the Justice Department refuses to change course and stop blocking access to critical documents.”

“While the committee continues to move toward consideration of contempt, it is important to note that the next step in the process of contempt must be made by the Oversight Committee,” the spokesperson added. “Reports, based on anonymous sources, that decisions for consideration of contempt on the House floor have already been made are inaccurate.”

Throw into the midst of this an accusation from Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, that Darrell Issa has political motivations with the possible contempt proceedings. Of course, coming from the likes of Elijah Cummings who has viewed his role in the hearings as to protect the Obama Administration and to promote more gun control, this is rich.