New York Daily News: “Merchants Of Death” Gun Makers Are Cashing In On Every Mass Shooting

The New York Daily News continues its loud campaign against the gun industry:

For America’s gun makers, the slaughter of school children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School turned out to be very good for the bottom line.

In the three years since the massacre in Newtown, Conn., the country’s biggest gun manufacturers have made loads of money following a string of mass shootings — proof that as the body count rises, so do sales and profits.

The four biggest gun makers have cleared more than $632 million in profits since one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, a Daily News examination has found.

This was especially true in 2013, the year immediately after the massacre of 20 children and six adults in Newtown on Dec. 14, 2012.

That year, records show that profits at Sturm Ruger, based just 22 miles from Newtown in Southport, Conn., rose from $70.6 million to $111.7 million. Profits at Smith & Wesson, in nearby Springfield, Mass., jumped from $16.1 million to $78.7 million.

The Freedom Group, makers of Remington rifles and Bushmaster assault rifles — a weapon used at Sandy Hook — pulled down $57.7 million in profits in 2013 — nearly 10 times the $5.9 million they made the prior year.