By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Smith & Wesson (NASDAQ:SWBI) rose more than 8% in Thursday’s trading as rules making it easier to carry guns in public came into effect today in three more states in the U.S.
Iowa, Tennessee and Wyoming joined the list of states that allow those 21 and older to carry handguns without a permit. Tennessee already ranks as one of the most violent states in the U.S.
Texas will join them September 1.
According to NYT, Americans have been on an unusual, prolonged buying spree fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, the protests last summer and the fears they both stoked.
In March last year, federal background checks, a rough proxy for purchases, topped 1 million in a week for the first time since the government began tracking them in 1998. And the buying continued, through the protests in the summer and the election in the fall, until a week this spring broke the record with 1.2 million background checks, NYT said.
NYT quoted data from Northeastern University and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center that showed that about one-fifth of all Americans who bought guns last year were first-time gun owners.