Moreover, the Liberator can only currently fire a .380-caliber round. When a different round was shot through it, the gun blew apart. There’s also a reticence among companies to allow their property to be used for this purpose. In addition to Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) seizing its printer, Defense Distributed also had its lease on workshop space revoked.
Then there’s Thingiverse, a community site where 3-D designs can be uploaded for printing. MakerBot, which runs the site as well as makes its own 3-D printers, has begun removing gun plans from it. Defense Distributed has resorted to hosting its own site and is trying to upload as many of the banned designs as it can find. But as it hinted at in an April Fool’s Day prank, it’s always possible the government might come in and simply seize the website.
We’ve seen this level of concern before about plastic guns, particularly when Glock came out with its largely nonmetallic gun in the 1980s. The stated fear was its alleged ability to defeat metal detectors, but that proved to be unfounded.
Yet it’s also apparent the American public wants to own guns. Through April 30, the FBI reports that 8.7 million background checks were performed on individuals wanting to buy a firearm. While it cautions that you can’t extrapolate one-for-one background checks to firearms sales, it’s still a pretty good indicator of the demand out there. For comparative purposes, the number of background checks in the first four months of 2013 is more than all the checks performed for the full year of 2004. It’s also running 39% ahead of 2012, the year with the greatest number of background checks ever performed for this purpose.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR) and Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:SWHC) are shooting out the lights with their earnings. Backlog at Ruger is double what it was a year ago, and is more than triple at S&W. Ammo shortages are everywhere as well, leaving even police departments begging for rounds. With no sign of demand abating, plastic guns — despite their appeal as a weapon for the masses — won’t be eating into their profits anytime soon.
“Plastics” was the advice given to Dustin Hoffman in the movie The Graduate as the product of the future, and that might still be the case when it comes to guns. But when it comes to investing, I maintain that the cold steel of a gun made by Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:SWHC) or Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR) is what investors should have in their sights.
The article The Democratization of Gun Making originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Rich Duprey has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends 3D Systems and Stratasys. The Motley Fool owns shares of 3D Systems, Stratasys, and Sturm, Ruger & Company and has the following options: Short Jan 2014 $36 Calls on 3D Systems and Short Jan 2014 $20 Puts on 3D Systems.
Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
